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.

Top Ten Plus Fifteen Equals Top Twenty Five Moment Inspired Blogs

I wrote these 25 blogs inspired from moments.

25. All Is Ready Cue The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show Opening Theme (Aug 7, 2023). The introduction song inspires preparation is completed. Everything is ready. Good to go.

24. Turn Back The Clock On Anime (Oct 1, 2017). A tweet showing the character No Face from the anime movie Spirited Away as a smartphone wallpaper inspired me to watch anime in Sep 2017.

23. Merry Unmotivational Christmas (Dec 26, 2023). Christmas was bad. Move forward. Hope the next Christmas is good.

22. Walmart Is Good At Being Walmart (Jan 13, 2022). I shared my observations shopping at a Walmart Neighborhood Market for the first time.

21. Green Tea And Coke Don't Mix (Feb 4, 2006). Support staff from my second company I worked gathered after hours to say goodbye to an assistant. I drank Coke for dinner. I drank green tea before I went to bed. I stayed awake for hours afterwards.

20. My Thoughts On Urban Growth Driving On Interstate 880 (Feb 14, 2016). A Sat drive on a Bay Area freeway seeing new construction and an unusual high amount of cars made me concerned about overpopulation.

19. Mike's Rules (Jul 5, 2014). A night shift gym staffer inspired the name of the rules for getting along with people. Some rules include complement a person, take the initiative, and smile.

18. End It Now (Jun 5, 2022). All of the parents practiced patience and restraint on a Cub Scout graduation event held on a school night. The fatigued parents wanted to go home quickly.

17. Too Many People (Jul 15, 2019). The Mercury News published an article titled Churches Go On Building Spree on Jun 16, 2019. The article discussed the San Francisco Bay Area churches building affordable housing on their properties. Too many people applied for the units.

16. Give It Time The Winners Remain Standing (Mar 10, 2021). I watched a documentary on a military boot camp. The losers quit the training.

15. Take The Advantage, Use The Advantage (Jan 2, 2020). A dream inspired me to take an advantage when given to me.

14. My Girlfriend's Ultimatum Or Her French Black Dress (Mar 15, 2015). All relationships including marriages, business, and friends require work. "She gave me an ultimatum. Either I find a way to keep our relationship going or she breaks up with me. The French black dress was my break-up gift to remember her. I was shocked."

13. My Four Mount Rushmore Greatest Moments In My Life (Aug 9, 2020). 95.7 FM The Game KGMZ selected four Mount Rushmore greatest moments in Bay Area sports history in May 2020. My four Mount Rushmore greatest moments are cosplaying, growing up, self job training, and watching The Shawshank Redemption.

12. Always Protect Your Precious Belongings (Aug 12, 2005). I lost my laptop bag keychain at a retail strip mall. I was lucky a family and their children found it. I have been consistent protecting all my possessions when I'm out of the house.

11. Top Ten Plus Four Equals Fourteen Fry's Electronics Moments (Feb 25, 2021). Fry's Electronics declared bankruptcy. I also include the moment I Fried Fry's Electronics on Nov 25, 2005 when I shopped on Black Friday 2005.

10. Anti-Social For The First Time (Feb 18, 2017). There are multiple blogs when I wanted to escape from reality. I wanted to be alone. The blog was inspired when one of my cousins from Los Angeles visited after he graduated college.

9. Top Ten Daily Changes After O'Connor Hospital (Oct 21, 2017). I was an impatient for the first time on Apr 2-5, 2017. I was diagnosed with Acute Gallstone Pancreatitis. I needed two surgeries.

8. Maintenance Is Important As Innovating Infinitely (Nov 6, 2016). The Freakonomics Podcast In Praise of Maintenance on Oct 19, 2016 inspired the blog.

7. Seeing Ordinary People Living Their Lives (Nov 4, 2014). An evening shopping observing normal people living one day at a time inspired the blog.

6. First Time I Saw A Restaurant Close On Tuesdays (Dec 9, 2018). The bad luck 2018 year cumulated when a restaurant I wanted to try for the first time located out of town closed on Tues instead of the typical Mons.

5. Sort Of Professional Painter (Feb 17, 2019). I'm terrible at home repairs. I'm terrible at home improvements. I hate painting. However, the job must be completed. Maintenance is required. The blog emphasized being a professional. Further, the blog Respect For Hard Work Multiplied By 60 Hours written on Feb 18, 2019 is included.

4. Epilogue (Oct 15, 2005). There were two reasons I visited Washington and Canada. The first reason was visiting my friend at his home state for the first time; in addition, visiting another state and visiting a foreign country. The second reason is inspiration: "Life is a marathon, not a sprint. These people won their marathons and are retired. It takes time to become successful. I should enjoy the marathon. That is the inspiration from the Washington Canada Vacation."

3. Boring Can Save Your Ass (Jan 12, 2022). I went to a tire service center to get my car's tires rotated and balanced. The boring work must be done.

2. Grown Up Lessons In Second Grade Completing A Word Search (Oct 22, 2024). A difficult word search homework assignment in second grade taught me some assignments couldn't be completed. Also, I said, "The word search was just a word search. Nothing gained on an insignificant assignment was the third lesson. Nothing was rewarded. Nothing was penalized."

1. Stop And Smell The Roses And Read Your Receipt (Feb 3, 2022). An incorrect charge on my receipt reminded me to always check my receipt for errors. Also, slow down. Relax. Take a breath. Stop rushing.

People Fail Intentionally Or Unintentionally

Today's blog is an update on a past blog.

Update On A Past Blog

I write another thought on the blog I Did It Right written on Nov 14, 2013. I wrote I lived life correctly no matter the good times and the bad times, the successes and the failures, and the good lucks and the bad lucks. The blog was another reminder of growing up. I can't control everything. Never stop learning. Correct mistakes. Be grateful. Forgiveness.

I complete the plan. I follow the instructions. I adapt the system. I perform my job. I work everything correctly. Learning is finished. Training is completed. I'm sincere. I'm honest. The end result is failure.

There are 32 NFL football teams. Two of the 32 teams play for the NFL championship at the Super Bowl. The two teams' coaching staff create a plan. The two teams' players follow their instructions. The systems are established. All players know their jobs. They practice hard. One team wins. The other team loses. One team is successful. The other team and the 30 other teams not playing in the Super Bowl are failures.

An oversimplified hiring process for an open job position. 500 people apply for the job opening. 20% of the applicants qualify. 100 people remain. 20% of the applicants exceed the job requirements. 20 people remain. The hiring manager selects 6 candidates to interview. One candidate is hired. The other 499 people are not hired. The other 499 people fail for whatever reasons.

People can do everything correctly. People do fail. The people include me. The people include the reader. Most projects fail. Most businesses fail. Most relationships fail. Most people fail. Success is relative. Failure is absolute. Although, successful people can be wrong. Successful people can be lucky. Life is weird. Life is unfair.

There are false losers. I wrote about These Young People Are False Losers on Aug 7, 2022. These young people experience bad breaks and bad luck.

New Sights And New Experiences

Blogger's Note: May is pic month. I'm catching up posting pics from my smart phone. Enjoy!

I was lucky I got a free bottle water using my intuition. New Mahjong sights a portable automatic table and English translation Japanese Riichi tiles. Another new sight was apartments and industrial buildings by the bay water. Also, I saw 116 minutes from the home dishwasher for the first time. All workers should read The Peter Principle to minimize incompetence and to maximize worker habits. The family ate at a new Chinese restaurant for the first time for which the inside included a big picture.

Steve Jobs Quotes

Here are some quotes from the late co-founder of Apple.

I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis . . . intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work.

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.

If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will.

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it.

Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Um, once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.

Picasso had a saying--'good artists copy, great artists steal'--we have always been shameless . . . stealing great ideas.

Some people say, "Give the customers want they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page."

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

The journey is the reward.

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life--and your life is just to live inside your world. Try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life.

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them. I'll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I'll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I'm not there, but I'll always come back. . . . If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you've done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, "Bye, I have to go. I'm going crazy and I'm getting out of here." And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

You're born alone, you're going to die alone. And what exactly is it do you have to lose. There's nothing.

The last quote is three paragraphs.

"I sort of look at us as two of the luckiest guys (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) on the planet cause we found what we loved to do. And we were at the right place at the right time. We gotten to go to work every day with super bright people for 30 years, and do what we love doing. It's hard to be happier than that. Your family and that. What more can you ask for? So, I don't think about legacy that much. I just think about being able to get up every day and go in and hang around these great people and hopefully create something that other people will love as much as we do. And if we can do that, that's great.

"People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you're doing. And it's totally true. And the reason is because it's so hard that if you don't, any rational person would give up. It's really hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don't love it, if you're not having fun doing it, you don't really love it, you're gonna give up. And that's what happens to most people actually. If you really look at the ones that ended up being successful *in air quotes* in the eyes of society, and the ones that didn't, oftentimes, it's the ones that are successful loved what they did so they can persevere when it got really tough, and the ones that didn't love it quit cause they're sane. Right? Who want to put up with this stuff if you don't love it. So, it's a lot of hard work. And it's a lot of worrying constantly. And if you don't love it, you're going to fail. So you gotta love it. You got to have passion. And I think that's the high order albeit.

"The second thing is you got be a really good talent scout. No matter how smart you are you need a team of great people. And you got to figure out how to size people up fairly quickly, make decisions without knowing people too well, and hire them, and see how you do and refine your intuition and be able to help build an organization that can eventually just build itself cause you need great people around you."

Life Lessons From The Baseball Movie Bull Durham

Click on the YouTube links for scenes from the movie Bull Durham on life lessons.

BULL DURHAM (1988) | Meet Crash Davis | MGM. Any other job is usually better than retail.

Bull Durham (1988) - Kevin Costner - Tim Robbins - Fight. Buy a drink to break the ice to meet up from people in the past. Also, Don't think.

Bull Durham (1988) - Strikeouts Are Fascist Scene (3/12) | Movieclips. Listen to veterans. Listen to experience.

Bull Durham- Wanna Make it to the Show?. Don't date bossy people.

Bull Durham (1988) - Bunch of Lollygaggers Scene (5/12) | Movieclips. A good manager explains in simple words. Motivate explaining in simple words.

Bull Durham - Throw it at the Bull. Diversion is a trick. Diversion is a tactic.

Bull Durham (1988) - Getting Woolly Scene (6/12) | Movieclips. Job skills are more important than material goods. Say no to material objects. Say yes to job skills.

Bull Durham | Winning Streak. The feeling of a winning streak. Maintain the winning streak.

Bull Durham (1988) - Winning's Better Than Losing Scene (7/12) | Movieclips. Cliques can save a person from trouble. Boring can save a person from trouble.

Bull Durham (1988) - I Want you Scene (9/12) | Movieclips. Manners, self-esteem, confidence, strength, and intelligence attract men and women.

Bull Durham- Best Scene. The number one makes a difference. An average of one more makes a difference. Also, talent is more important than intelligence.

Bull Durham (1988) - Kevin Costner - Susan Sarandon. You can't get everything you want in life. There are going to be losers through no fault of their own. Some dreams don't come true. Also, out with the old and in with the new.

tourists in bull durham.mov. Almost all good news and bad news nobody knows.

Update On A Past Blog

The number one makes a difference scene> Bull Durham- Best Scene reminds me of the blog Today I Want To Talk About The Numbers Greater Than Zero And Less Than Or Equal To One written on Jun 17, 2020. Percentages make a difference. 20% increase. 20% decrease. A few percentage points is the difference between *fill in the blank one* and *fill in the blank two*.

I wrote past life lessons blogs. Here are two of my favorites. The first favorite is Top Ten Life Lessons I Learned Watching Sports written on Nov 5, 2016. Some of the lessons include curses are meant to be broken, be professional, and be calm. There are multiple updates on a past blog adding more lessons to the blog which include luck, circumstances, and talent are factors to succeed as a professional athlete; don't waste time thinking about something making no sense; and winning solves problems.

The second favorite is Life Lessons From Space Brothers written on Aug 17, 2015. Space Brothers is my second all-time favorite anime series. Some of the lessons include it's faster to just do it, veterans help newbies, find one interesting think to lose track of time, improve failures, and teamwork.

Top Ten Plus Three Equals Top Thirteen Lessons Schools Don't Teach

Schools teach ABC's and 123's. Schools teach 1+1=2, water is H2O, verbs, animals, and telling time. Schools don't teach manners, wisdom, and money. There is too much to learn. There is not enough school funds. There are not enough teachers. Parents must supplement their children's education. I wrote a blog FYI, Parents You Are Teachers, Too on Jul 30, 2009. I said, "Parents, find time to teach the soft skills schools don't teach."

There are multiple ways children can learn some lessons because we live in the Information Age; for example, YouTube. Parents must be aware some sources are wrong. Parents and children must use their best judgement they're getting accurate information.

Here are the top ten plus three equals top thirteen lessons schools don't teach:

13. Etiquette, Politeness, And Manners. It's unlikely teachers teach thank you, please, share, honesty, respect, more listening, and less talking. Teachers say them. Teachers don't teach them.

12. Financial Education. No person with a teaching credential knows the stock markets, interest rates, consumer price index, gold, cryptocurrency, and mortgage rates. Otherwise, the teacher works in another industry avoiding children five days a week.

11. Physical Fitness. Put the video game controller down. Turn off the phone. Get out. Move the knees and elbows. I include healthy eating for number 11.

10. Sex. The school districts policies teaching sex are a joke.

9. Depression. Welcome depression. Depression is okay. Do you feel better? If the answer is yes, then solve depression long-term. It's the deal.

8. Intuition. The late Steve Jobs said, "I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis . . . intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work."

Trust your gut feeling.

7. The World Is Not 100% Successful. Some dreams don't come true. Some people fail. Most things don't work out.

6. Don't Take Life For Granted. Self-explanatory.

5. Earn it. Success is not given on a silver platter.

Bonus: Time is the ultimate judge. Time will tell what you're doing in the present results in something good or something bad in the future.

4. Life Is Unfair. The first rule in Bill Gates' 11 Rules For Real Life is "Life is not fair - get used to it."

3. Bad Timing And Bad Luck. Timing and luck are factors to success and to failure. Most successful people never admit timing and luck are factors to their accomplishments. However, they're not the only factors themselves to be successful. Hard work, intelligence, repetition, and grit are factors, too.

2. Stop complaining about your crappy life. Life doesn't care about your problems. Too fat? Get physical. Eat healthy. Poor grades? Self-teach outside the textbook. No friends? Learn social skills. Get help.

1. Change. If you don't want to change, then life finds a way to change your life. You may not like life's choice for change.

Update On A Past Blog

I mention FYI, Parents You Are Teachers, Too written on Jul 30, 2009 for the second time. I started learning both the soft skills and the life skills in May 2015. I can't explain I consciously follow the lesson daily starting in Sep 2019.

I asked a question, "How do teachers teach failure is good?" in Reward Failure In Schools written on Nov 20, 2018. Did any professional educator find a way to teach students failure is good? Reward failure. Reward intelligent mistakes. The professional educator is a millionaire if the answer is yes.

I Grew Up The Changes Were Immediate Growing Up On Sat Oct 4, 2008 Grow Up

I grew up on Sat Oct 4, 2008. The day changed my life forever. I stopped taking life for granted. Playtime was over. The stress I felt along my back loosened up. Everything and everyone bad happened in the past were forgiven. I detail the immediate changes for the first time. The growing up blogs I wrote beforehand were generalized. Actions spoke louder than words.

Tue Sep 2, 2008. I experienced an identity crisis. Who am I? What do I want? How am I going to achieve it? Where am I going? Why am I experiencing the identity crisis? When am I going to find my true identity? I was lost. I was a wimp. I was unhappy.

Sat Oct 4, 2008. The location was Los Altos, CA. I attended a board game gathering at the Los Altos Library. I met up with a friend to return his DVDs. We played World Of Warcraft for half of the event because of his doctor's appointment in the afternoon. I walked around an arts and wine festival located in Downtown Los Altos.

There were multiple thoughts in my mind walking back to my car. The thoughts were puzzle pieces. One puzzle piece was everyone congregated together. Families, friends, couples, and acquaintances. I was the only person alone. I crossed the street to the side of the library. Eureka! I said to myself, "I need to grow up." I was lucky. It took me 32 days to end the identity crisis. It was time to catch up what I missed. It took me years later to become a mature adult.

Here are the changes and the actions from Oct 4, 2008 to Dec 2, 2009:

*Wisdom. People come and go in our lives including a brief 15 minute encounter, acquaintances, friends, family, co-workers, loved ones . . . any relationship among ourselves. Nobody keeps in touch with everyone.

*New clothes: pajamas, jackets, sport shirts, a leather jacket, slippers for home, v-neck t-shirts, a red cashmere scarf, gym shirts, gym shorts, and The Gap and Calvin Klein boxers underwear. No more polo shirts. No more plain white t-shirts. I include my first stainless steel watch Citizen Eco-Drive.

*New objects: bedsheets set, blankets, gaming desktop PC, tablecloth for the dining room table, mattress, shower brush for my back, daytime backpack which is also my go bag, hiking equipment, a razor for wet shaving, and a tongue cleaner.

*Rearranged my room. Reorganized my book shelf. Recycled old electronics. Removed junk. Donated old clothes.

*New foods and drinks: cranberry juice, Super H2O, a Beard Papa's eclair, Spaghettios, Hawaiian cookies, 98% cocoa chocolate, Honey Bunches of Oates cereal, Juroku Cha drink, Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies, cherries, pomegranate juice, Evolution Orange Juice, multi-grain crackers, Jack In The Box taco, chocolate milk, Toblerone, Pocari Sweat, grits, Pho Vietnamese soup, Cinnabon, Thai ice tea, Japanese maple bread, New York pizza, calzone, Dr. Pepper, Coco Fizz chocolate soda, Bubble Up lemon lime soda, Faygo redpop soda, and gelato.

*Movies worth mentioning: The Godfather trilogy, Mad Max, The Graduate, Batman Begins, Hot Fuzz, The 40 Year Old Virgin, A View To A Kill, The Departed, Transporter 2, Bullitt, The Dark Knight, Goodfellas, Ben Hur, Coraline, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Blue Hawaii, Star Trek (2009), UP!, Citizen Kane, Inglorious Bastards, 9, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, and Where The Wild Things Are.

The anime The Place Promised In Our Early Days and Voices Of A Distance Star must be mentioned. I marathoned 13 episodes of Natsume Yuujinchou.

*I changed my email writing style. No more indenting when I typed a new paragraph.

*Music. I became interested in jazz music and classic jazz music. Purchased Porcelain CD by Helen Jane Long.

*Events: sold books at Half Price Books, ate breakfast in Downtown Campbell and visited Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, visited California Academy of Sciences, toured Stanford University and University Of California--Berkeley, watched fireworks at New Year's Eve 2009 in San Francisco, visited Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa, CA, shopped at IKEA for the first time, listened to jazz at the San Jose Jazz Festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival in Monterey, CA, and visited a small family amusement park Gilroy Gardens.

A one day trip in San Francisco because I dropped off family members for a vacation cruise. I walked around Pier 39, Fisherman's Warf, and Ghirardelli Square. I ordered the Fudge Sundae. Finally, I visited Japantown and the Viz Video building.

*Anime Events: cosplay gathering at Winchester Mystery House, cosplay gathering at Christmas In The Park in Downtown San Jose, cosplaying at an anime store Christmas party, and cosplay gathering at Hakone Japanese Garden in Saratoga, CA. I walked in the Northern California Cherry Blossoms Parade in San Francisco, CA.

Attended Fanime Con 2009. My best Fanime Con and my best anime convention I attended. I cosplayed Haku from Spirited Away for the first time. A good Fanime Con 2009 convinced me to attend Anime Expo 2009 at the last minute. I thank my mom for making the Haku cosplay.

*I cancelled Napster.

*Books: The Choice by Nicholas Sparks, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Forever by Judy Blume, Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, Uncle John's Great Big Bathroom Reader, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Q&A by Vikas Swarup, Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, and Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus from John Gray.

*I changed the oil in my car the fastest ever. I started at 4:30pm in early Dec.

*Washington Canada 2008 Vacation. Timing was perfect for a distraction. Click on the blog links Washington Canada 2008: Prologue, Washington Canada 2008: Day 1 of 6 Sat Nov 15, Washington Canada 2008: Day 2 of 6 Sun Nov 16, Washington Canada 2008: Day 3 of 6 Mon Nov 17, Washington Canada 2008: Day 4 of 6 Tue Nov 18, Washington Canada 2008: Day 5 of 6 Wed Nov 19, Washington Canada 2008: Day 6 of 6 Thur Nov [20], and Washington Canada 2008: Epilogue. Pictures are included.

*Christmas 2008 was the best Christmas holiday. Christmas 2008 is still my best.

*Video Games. I played Team Fortress 2 (TF2) and Crysis on my gaming PC. I played Rock Band and Rock Band Beatles for the first time.

*New. Ballroom dancing and hiking hobbies. I created a Facebook account and a Twitter account. I followed gym workouts from Body Building.

*Accutane. I started taking the acne medication.

*Computer Files Organization. I transferred 54 data CDs to 5 data DVDs. I transferred data from floppy disks to one CD watching Coraline, Wall Street, My Neighbor Totoro, and The Transporter movies.

*Going Back To School. Enrolled at De Anza College in Cupertino CA. I took Strength Training, Social Dance which is ballroom dancing, and Accounting classes.

*My orthodontist removed my braces. I wore my braces from Jan 24, 2007 to Aug 17, 2009. 936 days or 2.56 years.

First Time. I snuck Junior Mints in the theatre. I visited a coffee shop for which I used their free Wi-Fi. I ate at Pepper Lunch, Curry House Japanese, and Ramen Halu restaurants. I ate donuts at a 24 hour donut shop. I ate at a 24 hour restaurant The Mini Gourmet which was in business for decades. I went to Aki's Bakery. I ate dinner at Clover bakery and cafe. I tried coffee for the first time and the only time.

*My home upgraded the HVAC.

New Tabletop Games: The Settlers Of Catan: Cities and Knights, The Settlers Of Catan: Seafarers, Lifeboat, Balderdash, cribbage, Riichi Mahjong, Bang!, Dominion, and Rat A Tat Cat. Also, Google Scrabble for which the rule is any word which comes up with at least 1,000 Google search results is valid.

Update On A Past Blog

I want to add more wisdom to the blog I Define Self-Respect written on Mar 12, 2015. Self-respect is not dumbing down. Never reduce yourself. Don't lower yourself. I said, "I believe with self-respect includes self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-discipline." Don't disrespect yourself. Be courageous to respect yourself. Stay smart. Stay strong.

I Didn't Get Sick On Thur Jan 8, 2026

I went shopping inside a mall to exchange a Christmas gift I didn't want. I exited the store I exchanged the gift. I walked inside the mall heading to the exit. A man walking towards me coughed multiple times without covering his mouth approximately three feet away. I detoured away from the man. I felt phlegm in my throat immediately. I swallowed multiple times. I wore two masks.

I felt mucus down my throat multiple times later in the day. I feared I got sick. I didn't panic. I drank a can of Coke for lunch and a can of Coke for dinner. I exercised at home with a limited workout due to a left tricep muscle injury. There was no point not doing any exercises. I was still healthy. I took advantage before I got sick.

Furthermore, the air was dry. The temperature range was the mid 60s and the upper 30s. My body is weak when my body adapts to a big temperature range.

I'm lucky. I woke up on Fri Jan 9 without a sore throat. No symptoms of a stomach flu. No symptoms of RSV. No symptoms of potential COVID-19. Maybe it was allergies. Maybe my body falsely overreacted. Maybe the COVID-19 vaccine prevented my sickness. I wear new masks as a precaution even though the masks I wore on Thur Jan 8 were in good condition.

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.

Past Lesson Blogs

Today's blog is an update on a past blog.

Update On A Past Blog

Here are 31 blogs with the word "lesson" in the blog title sorted by date in descending order from Dec 31, 2024 and earlier. Choose any blog to review and/or to relearn past lessons.

1. Grown Up Lessons In Second Grade Completing A Word Search written on Oct 22, 2024. Some assignments can't be completed for whatever reasons. People do cheat. And don't take everything seriously.

2. Reading Books Reinforce Centuries Life Lessons written on May 7, 2024. A pic blog from books Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw, Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, All The President's Men by Carl Berstein and Bob Woodward, and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Humans deserve kindness. A person realizes life becomes a joke the longer he or she lives. 99.9% of young people are not going to change the world. The word "rat" can be used in joke, metaphors, and anecdotes. Always verify. Give it time; for instance, it was inevitable Richard Nixon resigned. Every human being has at least one redeeming quality.

3. Throwback Blog: The Lesson To Be Successful Rarely Taught written on Feb 28, 2024. I repost timing, luck, opportunity, and chance blog from Sep 12, 2018.

4. A Lesson From The Rich People written on Jun 27, 2023. Understand the true meaning of work more and play less.

5. Life Lessons And Reminders written on May 21, 2022. A pic blog which includes two pages from the book Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden. Remember standard procedures. Narratives can change in minutes.

6. Three Grown-Up Lessons I Didn't Learn When I Was A Child written on Apr 17, 2022. The first lesson is nobody is perfect. The second lesson is actors and actresses don't make one movie and one television show for their entire careers. The third lesson is families change.

7. High School R.O.T.C. Leadership Lesson Another Viewpoint By Rank written on Oct 24, 2020. I rank the leadership attributes and leadership skills by importance.

8. Top Ten Lessons I Learned The Hard Way written on Jun 23, 2019. Never stop meeting new people is number one. Don't take life for granted is number three. Grow up is number four. Earn it is number six. Take care of your body inside and outside equally is number eight. Timing and luck are factors is number ten. These are my favorites.

9. The Lesson To Be Successful Rarely Taught written on Sep 12, 2018. If I can teach timing, luck, opportunity, and chance, then I'm a millionaire.

10. Another Lesson From Never Stop Growing Up Regardless When It Started written on Sep 5, 2018. People come and go in our lives. One reason is we change. People naturally grow apart.

11. Relevant Life Lessons And Trends written on May 23, 2018. Another pic blog. Active parents raise active children.

12. Throwback Blog: Top Ten Life Lessons From The Beatles written on Oct 30, 2017. I repost the Beatles blog from Jul 1, 2015.

13. Never Stop Learning Lesson Emphasized Because One Of The Shermans Past Away written on May 5, 2017. A lesson I repeat. Never stop learning. Innovate infinitely.

14. Top Ten Life Lessons I Learned Watching Sports written on Nov 5, 2016. Support, good coaching, consistency, be professional, and a strong core are some of the lessons.

15. A Lesson From My Bad Years written on Nov 1, 2016. I share a lesson from my bad years in 2002, 2007, 2008, 2013, and 2014.

16. Life Lessons Learned Playing Mahjong Riichi written on Mar 18, 2016. Skip all the lessons except the last lesson which is luck is part of the game. I'm an advanced mahjong player. My luck is terrible.

17. Life Lessons From Space Brothers written on Aug 17, 2015. My number two all-time favorite anime series. The lessons are part of my Inspiration Cheer Up life wisdom.

18. Top Ten Life Lessons From The Beatles written on Jul 1, 2015. Ten Beatles song titles are life lessons: Let It Be, Get Back, I've Got A Feeling, The Long And Winding Road, We Can Work It Out, Carry That Weight, Something, Here Comes The Sun, You're Going to Lose That Girl, and Getting Better.

19. Top Ten Lessons I Learned Working At My Last Job written on Nov 16, 2014. I worked at a retail startup selling wine. Shipping and receiving require training. There is no such thing as 100% customer service.

20. Top Ten Lessons I Learned Incorrectly written on Jul 28, 2014. I'm happy I corrected these lessons. They're no longer part of my life.

21. Top Ten Lessons My Parents Failed To Teach Me written on May 2, 2013. Parents raising children existed for centuries. Parents raising children exist in today's modern world. Unfortunately, some parents make the same mistakes my parents made when they raised me.

New parents remember some of these lessons from my top ten: communicate with your children, don't take life for granted, be mature, learn how to cook, read, and don't ignore problems hoping they disappear.

22. A Life Lesson I Learned Gangnam Style written on Aug 29, 2012. Ignore the lesson. I communicated incorrectly.

23. Lessons From My Office Space written on Jun 17, 2012. The first mistake was I didn't talk and socialize with my co-workers. The second mistake was I didn't realize people supported me in my second company. I believed I was lonely. I believed I was on my own. I had to be strong. I was a coward.

24. Life Lessons I Learned From Alex Smith written on Feb 15, 2012. The fifth lesson summarized Alex Smith's NFL career. Smith experienced bad luck and bad timing. I add a seventh lesson which is grit. Continue grinding. There was no reason to quit.

25. Another Lesson I Learned From My Grandparents written on Oct 15, 2010. My grandparents failed to meet new people and make new friends. People come and go. It's important to be surrounded with people. Make sure the people are good.

26. Derek Paravicini Teaches A Lesson On Life written on Apr 2, 2010. Begin in a friendly way.

27. A Lesson Learned Tonight written on Feb 2, 2010. There are no guarantees in life.

28. A Lesson From The Ants written on Dec 19, 2009. Don't make the same mistake twice.

29. A Lesson On Life Yesterday written on May 5, 2007. It was a reality check. Times have changed in the workplace from my parent's generation and the years before the Great Recession. Workers were on their own to solve problems. Everyone was too busy.

30. One Lesson Of Life Cosplaying written on Aug 28, 2006. The one lesson was don't rush. Take it slow. I add a second lesson of life cosplaying worth repeating is never stop meeting new people.

31. $100.00 Lesson written on Jan 24, 2006. Read the expiration dates for all rebates.

No Guarantees In Life Including Sports

Sports are percentages. There is pass completion rate, percentage drops, and number of points the defense gives up per game in football. There is field goal percentage and free throw percentage in basketball. There is batting average, walk to strike out ratio, and earned run average in baseball. There is goals against average and shots on goals in hockey. There is no 100%. There is no 1.000.

The percentages, rates, ratios, probabilities, averages, sums, and totals in all sports applies to life. Chances in life applies to sports. Timing and luck in sports applies to life. A basketball player experiences a bad shooting night in a regular season game. A no big deal. A basketball player experiences a bad shooting night in a championship game. A yes big deal. The thought process applies to a quarterback throwing a football, a place kicker kicking a field goal, a baseball player going 0 for 4 with three deep flyouts, a pitcher giving up four home runs, a winger missing too many shots on goal, and a goal keeper giving up four goals.

We blame the players for the bad performance. We blame the players for the miss critical plays. We blame coaches for bad decisions. Think rationally. No player wants to screw up. No coach wants to lose. The chances are there to connect, and sometimes there are no chances. Timing and luck are not there. The game is lost. The strategies don't work out. It's the other result. It's the opposite of the percentage. It's the other side. A basketball player free throw percentage success is 90.1%. The player missed critical free throws at the fourth period. It's the 9.9% failure percentage. Failed. The team lost the game. Regular season is a no big deal. Try again next time. Championship playoffs is a yes big deal. It's unfair. It's the nature of the sports world. A professional sports team not making the playoffs with at least 50% regular season wins is considered a successful season.

The Odds Are Against Professional Dreamers

There are a limited number of active professional sports players who play in the top leagues. There are 1,696 professional football players in the 32 team NFL out of all the professional football players. There are 450 professional basketball players in the 30 team NBA out of all the professional basketball players. There are 780 professional baseball players in the 30 team MLB out of all the professional baseball players. There are 736 professional hockey players in the 32 team NHL out of all the professional hockey players. Those numbers are small. Practice squad and inactive professional players are excluded from the numbers. The chances of professional sports players in a North American big league roster are slim. Life is rolling the dice. Many try to become professional sports players. Few succeed.

Update On A Past Blog

I add the percentages, rates, ratios, probabilities, averages, sums, and totals in all sports to the blog Top Ten Life Lessons I Learned Watching Sports written on Nov 5, 2016.

I wrote a no guarantees blog A Lesson Learned Tonight written on Feb 2, 2010. The blog talked about Conan O'Brien leaving The Tonight Show with a $45 million settlement on Jan 2010. I remind myself there are no guarantees in life; however, death and taxes are 100% certain.

I repeat an update on a past blog word for word from Owners Hiring The Below Average Worker on May 12, 2023:

Life is chances. The right place at the right time. Timing and luck are in favor. The wind blows behind your back. The odds are good. The dice are rolling well. Probability is close to 100%. Here are two blogs related to chances, odds, and probabilities: Roll The Dice When You Wake Up written on Aug 12, 2019 and The Homeless People Rolled Too Many Snake Eyes written on Apr 8, 2019. Death and taxes are 100% certain. Life is unfair regardless of the probabilities. Times continue to be tough going forward.

Down And Out Both Are Never Permanent

Blogger's note: Today's blog is posted at both Innovating Common Knowledge and Finding Raymond Mar.

I connect the dots from yesterday to today. The following moments were down and out. There were no permanent downs and outs. The following moments could be a catastrophe. Disasters were prevented. The following moments could be negative life changes. I'm fortunate these negative life changes were temporary. The following moments were potential failures. Failures became satisfactory successes. Life found a way to bounce me back up. The system worked at the end of the day. Destiny, intuition, karma, going with the flow, divine intervention, whatever. A bad luck moment was countered with a good luck moment plus more goodness.

Faith, good luck, and/or good choices saved me from a permanent down and out. Many of these moments were luck. Few of these moments were good decisions. I needed help from family, co-workers, and friends. All assistances were appreciated. Here are the moments from oldest to newest. I categorized the moments good luck or good decision. I want to tell the story. Some of these moments connect.

*Changed Majors (Fall Semester 1995). Good decision. I changed majors from Mathematics to Economics as an undergraduate at San Jose State University. The preparing, volunteering, reading, and the guidance to become a high school math teacher were falling apart. I couldn't pass my math classes. I lost my desire.

One could say the change in majors were killing two birds with one stone. The first was switching majors my grade point average went up every semester thereafter. The second was I'm not teaching in high school today. I graduated with a Bachelors Of Science in Economics and a minor in Mathematics. I didn't waste my lower division math classes.

*First Job (Jul 1998). Good luck. It took me six months to find my first job after graduating at San Jose State University. I was a Research Analyst in a commercial real estate company. My parents pressured me to find a job naturally. I thought about going back to San Jose State University to earn a master's degree.

*Second Job (Feb 1999). Good luck. The manager who hired me at my first job hired me for my second job. Same job title in the same industry. I was a Research Analyst in commercial real estate. The second company was better than the first company. A total of five employees quit from my first company to work at the second company. Moreover, the second company saved me from the first company because I thought about quitting the first company.

*My Second Boss Was Fired (Sep 2002). Good luck. My first boss who hired me at my first job and my second job moved to Australia. My second boss was nothing. Officially, she found another job. Unofficially, she was fired.

I warned the office manager she was ineffective. I waited two years for her release.

*Full Metal Alchemist Midnight Marathon (May 2004). Good decision. A Fanime Con 2004 anime convention event was a midnight marathon showing the anime series Full Metal Alchemist. I watched 17 episodes from midnight to 7am. I stayed awake. The end of episode eight I said, "I'm going to cosplay Edward Elric." Edward Elric was the main character. I thank my mom for making my Edward Elric cosplay.

I contemplated retiring from anime for the remainder of 2004 because I talked to a friend much younger than me. He retired from anime. Watching the marathon delayed my retirement for nine years and four months. I officially retired in Sep 2013.

*Third Job (Mar 2007). Good luck. The second company started going downhill in late 2006. People began quitting. My third job was my first tech job. The company was the largest employer in San Jose, CA. I belong working in the tech industry.

*Grow Up (Oct 2008). Good decision. I remember the day for the rest of my life. I was lost in Aug-Sep 2008. I was weak. I realized I must grow up. My life changed forever. The life changes were immediate. I built a new Gaming PC, I started to read fiction books, I wore new clothes, I purchased my first fine watch, and I slept on a new mattress. I found new hobbies which included hiking, ballroom dancing, and listening to classic jazz. I started following new gym workout plans.

I include going back to school earning an Associate Of Arts degree in Accounting at De Anza College and vacationing in the state of Washington and visiting Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

*First Job In A Start Up (Nov 2013). Good luck. I was a data entry and bookkeeper in a retail start up selling high end beer, wine, and sake at a discount price. Timing was good because I needed a distraction.

*Another Tech Job (Nov 2014). Good luck. My contract job at the start up company was satisfied. I found another contract job supporting an engineer at a networking server company.

*O'Connor Hospital (Apr 2017). Good decision and good luck. I experienced stomach pains since Mar 2017. The pain was too severe. My parents took me to the emergency room. The wait time was minimal. I was admitted as an in-patient requiring two surgeries. The hospital was not busy. The hospital was quiet. I was the only patient in a double occupancy room for three out of the four nights. The first surgery was Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio Pancreatography which removed gallstones. The second surgery was Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy which removed my gallbladder. The doctors diagnosed me with Acute Gallstone Pancreatitis.

The moment was the first time I was an in-patient and first time doctors performed surgery.

*Safe At Home Plate, 50 Years Old At The Age Of 45, or Self Trained Genius (Aug-Sep 2019). Good luck. I can't choose a title for the Aug-Sep 2019 moment. I include any of the three. Choose any one.

I began hiking again devoting one day per month. I hiked the Montara Mountain Trail in Pacifica, CA for the first time on Labor Day weekend. I started to read Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. I watched The Shawshank Redemption for the first time. My soul was saved. I became a genuine adult at the age of 45. I began training to become a self trained genius.

A Song And A Genius On The Uncontrolled Life

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you; When you think everything's okay and everything's going right; And life has a funny way of helping you out when; You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up; In your face. --Ironic, Alanis Morissette

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. --Steve Jobs

Update On A Past Blog

The Top Ten Saves blog written on Apr 25, 2020 mentioned four moments from above: my second boss was fired at number ten, number seven mentioned The Shawshank Redemption, number four was the Fanime Con 2004 Full Metal Alchemist midnight marathon, number two was O'Connor Hospital, and number one was growing up.

Three high school saves happened in my sophomore year. I took Geometry after my sophomore year in summer school to take Algebra II in my junior year. I played chess during the lunch hour. I played softball in Physical Education.

Another moment in Fall Semester 1995 which was a save. A shoutout to my Physics 61 laboratory partner who majored in General Engineering. He saved my ass.

My Generation X Sucks

Gen X is known as the forgotten generation. Gen X is between the bigger size and expressive generations Baby Boomers and Millennial or Gen Y. Gen X are people born between 1965 and 1981. Baby Boomers are people born between 1946-1964. Millennials are people born between 1981 and 1996.

Our childhood was latchkey. A latchkey kid is defined as a child left home alone or without supervision for most of the day because their parents are working. Another definition is a child returns to an empty residence after school or after other activities without supervision. We went to school by ourselves. We went home by themselves. We gathered in feral packs. We roamed the streets. The activities included riding bikes, playing baseball, skateboarding, and jumping rope. We included kids we didn't like because of inclusion. There were commercials reminding latchkey parents about their children; for example, a local news commercial said, "It's 10pm. Do you know where your children are?" Our parents said before we exited the front door, "Be home before dinner." Perhaps, our latchkey childhood explained no parental involvement. No guidance. No teaching. No nurturing.

Gen X prefers calls over text. We desire offline communication over online communication. We are more patient. Persistence and grit are true attributes. The process is more valuable than the result. Privacy is paramount. We prefer cash over credit cards.

Some world events included the Vietnam War, Watergate, the energy crisis in the 1970s, AIDS in the 1980s, President Ronald Regan's Reaganomics, Chernobyl, the Berlin Wall collapse, the Cold War ended, and the Apple and IBM personal computers. There were disco, MTV, and Michael Jackson.

The Gunnie Pigs

Gen X are the first people to watch educational television such as Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Schoolhouse Rock! We experienced changes in music from vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, and then mp3s. We experienced changes in communication from typewriters to word processors; from landlines, car phones, pagers, mobile phones, cell phones, and then smart phones; from floppy disks, USB storage devices, email attachments, and then the cloud.

Gen X are the first workers with defined contribution accounts. These accounts are 401(k) and IRA for which the workers are responsible for their retirements. Baby Boomers retirement accounts are defined benefit pensions for which the company funded their retirement accounts. Moreover, we are the first generation both parents worked for dual incomes.

We Gen X juggle our lives by taking care of our children and our aging parents. We care about our families. We make sure our children are active such as dance class, band practices, and sports practices. We make sure our parents arrive at their medical appointments and rehab sessions. On the other hand, our generation saw an increase in the number of divorces.

Further, Gen X struggles with personal finances. It's an economic inflation storm of college tuition, utilities, mortgages or rent, insurances, and bare necessities. Some Gen X support their parents and their adult children. The increase costs make some Gen X work in their 60s and 70s. I hope they don't lose their jobs. They experience ageism while finding employment. They experience some jobs replaced with AI.

The 2000s decade Gen X's 401(k) and IRA declined because of the dot com bubble in Mar 2000 and the real estate bubble in Sep 2008. Our retirement accounts declined during a brief inflation in late 2018, COVID-19 global recession from 2020-2022, and the present inflation. We can be the first generation to experience the Social Security collapse. The forecast is Social Security loses all funding in the year 2033. Payments are decreased by 20% to 25%.

Update On A Past Blog

I wrote blogs blaming my parents for my unsuccessful life or loser life. I forgave them decades ago. It's not entirely my parent's fault. Gen X is to be blamed, too. Here are three blogs I blamed my parents: Top Ten Don't Be My Parents written on Mar 17, 2020, There Are Many Children With Parents Like Mine written on Jun 2, 2014, and Top Ten Lessons My Parents Failed To Teach Me written on May 2, 2013.

Life Knowledge And Life Wisdom From De Anza College Oct 2010

Today's blog is an update on a past blog. The blog is inspired from the current feature post.

Update On A Past Blog

I want to review my blog De Anza Week Oct 25, 2010 written on Oct 28, 2010. There were life knowledge and life wisdom I want to repeat. I attended the Fall 2010 quarter four days a week. It was the only quarter I attended classes four days week.

Mon Oct 25: I have a better understanding why most students eat out more than they want. The reasons are saving time from cooking and saving money . . . . Eating out is convenient. Less time cooking and more time studying.

The food at home was boring. The household did a bad job cooking boring meals. The boring meals continue today. The change is I'm doing a better job making the boring meals awesome.

Tue Oct 26: Intermediate Acct and Integrated Computer [Acct] classes are behind schedule. What else is new in life? I believe everyone is behind on something. The irony is students who submit their homework and projects late are penalized. Teachers grading homework and mid-terms late and are behind schedule in the syllabus are not penalized. Similarly, sons and daughters who are late doing something are penalized by their parents--at least strict parents; however, if parents are late with something, sons and daughters don't [penalize] their parents.

In the real world, sometimes work, projects, and commitments are completed late.

I thought students were lazy submitting assignments late while I was at San Jose State. Now that I think about it, many of those students submitting assignments late were not lazy. They have other commitments such as working and taking care of their family. There is so much we do in today's [Information Age] way of living. The honest people complete their responsibilities and commitments the best and the earliest we can.

An irony yesterday. An irony generations ago. An irony today. An irony tomorrow. The people at the lower ladder steps, the people at the lowest level, or the people at the lower end of the totem pole can't get away with tardiness. Also, everyone is behind schedule in something in the Information Age. People choose their priorities. Sometimes there are penalties. Sometimes there are no penalties. We want to say "yes." Unfortunately, there are saying "no" or saying "can't do it."

Wed Oct 27: Read the textbook, do the homework, and study hard are keys to earn high grades. Another key to earn high grades teachers and counselors fail to advise their students is eat well. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are meals unavoidable. No junk food. No cookies and chips while doing your math. If you need to skip a meal, skip lunch. Breakfast is the most important meal.

Sometimes the easy answers are incorrect. Sometimes the clique answers are incomplete. Good meals are important to earn high grades. I add physical fitness and sleep. I accept students exchanging physical fitness for completing class projects and exchanging sleep for working at their jobs. I accept flexibility. I allow leeway.

Thur Oct 28: Timing and luck are part of success. If you're at the right place at the right time, life is good. My first accounting class in Fall '09 obviously was Financial Acct I. I never knew the basic accounting classes are three quarters. Timing and luck were in my favor. I took Financial Acct I in Fall '09, Financial Acct II in Winter '10, and Managerial Acct in Spring '10. I completed the basic courses in one year while retaining what I learned carrying forward to the next class without worrying about summer vacation forgetting the concepts.

The first sentence is self-explanatory. I want more successful people to be honest admitting timing and luck favored them.

It was my fault I failed researching the beginning accounting classes when I started Fall Quarter 2009. The beginning accounting consisted of one academic year or three quarters. I was lucky I took all three classes in one academic year instead of a summer break in between any of the three classes.

Screwed Or Not Screwed

I ask questions about myself. I answer "screwed" or "not screwed" followed by an explanation. I choose no NSFW answer "fucked" or "not fucked." There is no 50/50 middle ground. If it's 51% screwed, then I'm screwed. If it's 51% not screwed, then I'm not screwed. Here are the self-analysis questions:

*Find a job: screwed. The unemployed readers know the truth. There are fewer job openings. There are too many unemployed seeking employment from the fewer job openings.

*Health: not screwed. I include physical fitness. I workout four days a week. I minimize eating processed foods. I sleep eight hours a night. I drink water when I'm thirsty.

*Money: screwed. All prices are going up. All costs are going up. All payments are going up.

*Job training: screwed. On the one hand, I finished my self job training on Apr 19, 2024 Self Job Training Graduation Analytics Research Technology. On the other hand, the continued job training remains too slow. There is too much to learn. There are good free learning resources. I'm skeptical on paid online training.

*Learning outside the job training: not screwed. Finding new life skills is slow and sure. An advantage being unemployed is plenty of time to learn. These skills can be useful tomorrow.

*Socialize with friends and family: not screwed. I started meeting my friends post pandemic. I started meeting new people post pandemic. I'm patient.

*COVID-19: not screwed. I wear masks. I'm updated on the latest vaccines. I never tested positive.

*Timing, luck, destiny, karma: screwed. The world has not been flowing in my favor for years.

*Time remaining to live life: screwed. My life is either paused or moving forward too slowly. I follow through everything I learned. Too many delays. Too many stalls.

*Happiness in the short term: not screwed. I wrote being a happy loser My Problems Are Nothing on Dec 27, 2024 compared to many people with bigger unhappy problems.

*Happiness in the long term: screwed. Money is not a factor to become happy. However, money helps a person become happy. I don't know the future regarding money.

*Mental: not screwed. I separate physical health and mental health. I read books. I job training. I learn life skills. Never stop learning.

A Second Look At 2023

It's the time I look back at my 2023 blogs to give myself feedback. The goals delaying one year are relearning from my mistakes, reinforcing my lessons, reminding myself my moments, refreshing acquired knowledge, rediscovering new wisdom, correcting errant blogs, and sharing changes. The 14 blogs are also the 2023 best blogs.

1. Too Much Too Tired
Date: Tue Mar 7
Summary: Nobody is at fault for being fatigued because we live in the fast pace Information Age.
Feedback: Fast, faster, and fastest. The assignments, responsibilities, and training should have been completed yesterday. Everyone is doing more 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The same 24 hours a day and seven days a week were our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents generations lived. It's the Information Age. Stop complaining or live somewhere else.

I share two stories. The first story my brother is a cyber security engineer. One of his responsibilities is programming. He uses his company's proprietary AI to write the code. AI saves time. He has too many responsibilities. The second story my niece is a sophomore in high school. Her physical education class is yoga. The instructor allows students to take naps after yoga because students are too tired. There are too many responsibilities for today's high school students they must complete hours of homework in minutes.

2. The Time Is Now And Later
Date: Fri Apr 23
Summary: Go with the flow.
Feedback: Good intention blog. Dumb topic blog. We go backwards sometimes as we move forwards. We hope the net gain is forward. +2-1=+1 is the math formula. Unfortunately, some people the net gain is backwards. Life is unfair.

The timing is good for the second look. I'm surviving Dec 2024 by going with the flow. I hate adjusting my schedules beyond my control. The frustration feeling is recognized. Fewer responsibilities are completed at the end of the day. Finish the rest of the responsibilities another day.

The last two weeks of 2024 are rest weeks. The frustrations continued during the first week. I accepted them. Life goes on.

3. Graduation Means Continue Learning
Date: Sat Jun 10
Summary: I summarized my self job training since May 2015.
Feedback: The final self job training or the endgame started on Jun 7, 2023. The endgame was completed on Mar 24, 2024. I graduated myself with an Analytics Research Technology degree on Apr 19, 2024. The learning continues on Jul 15, 2024 with a weekly schedule Excel, HTML, JavaScript, Power Pivot or Power Query, Python, and WordPress.

4. Do We Fail When We Do?
Date: Sat Jun 24
Summary: Quitting doesn't necessarily equate to failure.
Feedback: The blog is confusing. I meant to say everyone does their best. Not everyone succeeds. Are the people who don't succeed a failure?

Answer the question: successful fail or success failed? Or successfully failed as in I did my best--if I died tomorrow, then could I say I did my best? I did what I must. Success failed can be elaborated as I did everything I was told. I did everything by the book. I followed the plan. I followed the advice. I followed the guidance. Unsuccessful. I failed.

If the chances of success are low or the chances of failure are high, then why do it? Good philosophical discussion.

5. Continue The Lie
Date: Sat Jul 8
Summary: I dreamed last night I faked an analysis report.
Feedback: The feedback is for the Update On A Past Blog for which a co-worker faked the statistics. He was caught. He found another job before he was fired.

Bullshit is not 100% successful. Most bullshit is detected. "I don't know" or "It was that way when I came here" are good ways to deflect blame when in trouble.

There was a Freakonomics podcast on academic researchers faking their reports Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? released on Jan 10, 2024. There is an update Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update) released on Dec 25, 2024

The most successful people and most successful companies didn't make it to their tops on hard work and following the rules. There are some bullshit involved. They and it must be assholes to make it to the top and stay on top. The stakes are too high not to be assholes.

6. All Is Ready Cue The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show Opening Theme
Date: Mon Aug 7
Summary: I posted two YouTube videos and the lyrics on The Bugs Bunny And Road Runner Show opening theme to celebrate completing my self job training.
Feedback: I didn't play the song when I finished the self job training end game resulting in graduating with Self Job Training Graduation Analytics Research Technology on Apr 19, 2024. I played the song after I posted the blog.

7. Moving Forward Maturely
Date: Sun Aug 20
Summary: The week of Mon Aug 14, 2023 was a bad week.
Feedback: A second go with the flow blog. The responsibilities for the week of Mon Aug 14, 2023 were completed or incompleted. There was no penalty for half-ass work. There was no reward for maximum completion.

Nobody is perfect. Even professionals are not perfect. They don't win 100% of the time. They can't do it today. There's always tomorrow. Excuses are justified.

The feedback for number seven combines with number two. There are justified excuses from Thanksgiving 2024 to the end of Dec 2024. Dec 2024 is ending the 2024 year on a bad note. There are more bad days than good days. There are unfortunate circumstances. There are unanticipated new priorities clear and present. More frustrations. More bad timing. Responsibilities are being completed or incomplete at the end of the day. A silver lining is lessons learned and wisdom acquired.

8. Life Is Not Fair In My Words
Date: Fri Aug 25
Summary: I shared my thoughts on the common knowledge "life is not fair." The government. The education. The economy. The social class. The world. The system.
Feedback: A quick philosophical feedback. There is balance in life. Does the balance mean a balance of good and evil? Does the balance mean a balance of winners and losers? Does the balance mean a balance of success and fails? There are winners. There are losers. There can't be a world of pure 100% good. There can't be a world of pure 100% evil. Or there can't be a world of 100% destruction.

9. I Have A Brain
Date: Wed Sep 20
Summary: My internal body and external body are sound.
Feedback: I repeat the statement "I made more of my share of life mistakes." I say on the record I experienced more bad luck than good luck. I say on the record I experienced more failures than successes. I say on the record I experienced more defeats than wins. Any past blogs saying the contrary are incorrect.

10. Full Information Acquired
Date: Sun Oct 15
Summary: Full information is not acquired.
Feedback: I reiterate there is always a possibility all information not acquired. There is always uncertainty. Full information or perfect information doesn't exist.

I adapt the uncertainty principle from German scientist Werner Heisenberg for a non-scientific wisdom. The uncertainty principle scientific explanation is particles' positions and velocities can't be observed.

11. Emotionally Draining
Date: Thur Oct 19
Summary: I speculated the three Major League Baseball teams which won 100 or more regular seasons games were eliminated in the 2023 playoffs due to emotionally exhaustion.
Feedback: I learned a wisdom in 2024. The head or the brain is more important than the heart. Intelligences or mental capabilities take precedence over emotions. Physical capabilities take precedence over emotions.

The Golden State Warriors started the 2024-2025 NBA season with a 12-3 record and first place in the Western Conference. The Warriors record is 16-15 and ninth place in the Western Conference as of Dec 30, 2024. I speculate the Warriors 12-3 start were motivated more on emotions and less on intelligence. The emotions are drained.

12. Happy Living An Alternate Life
Date: Mon Nov 13
Summary:
Feedback: I wrote multiple daily life blogs in 2023. I choose the Happy Living An Alternate Life blog to represent these daily life blogs. These daily life blogs are not bullshit blogs. These blogs are honest blogs. One can say I repeat the blogs to increase my blog count. Fair statement. I repeat myself and I reiterate I'm doing the best I can to earn a happy life.

My changed attitude, stronger strength, increased intelligence, and added wisdom changed my viewpoint on the daily life blogs. They're legitimate. Don't take life for granted. I'm one step closer to become a self-trained genius.

More people discover living a happy life by spending more time at home, more time in private residences, or more time indoors due to the global pandemic. Prices are going up. Money can change attitudes.

13. I Worked At Bad Companies
Date: Sun Nov 19
Summary: It was bad luck I worked at bad companies.
Feedback: I wrote a cynical blog. There are good companies. The general population never hears about good companies because they're not newsworthy. Bad companies are known because they're newsworthy.

Luck applies to the North America professional sports teams football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer. There are professional drafts bringing new players from high schools, colleges, and foreign countries to these sports teams. The luck involves which player is drafted to which team. Is the team a good company or is the team a bad company? A professional team is a company. All draft pick players hope their company he or she plays include professional treatment, good coaching, good ownership, support, and opportunities. Politics and complaints are minimized.

14. Merry Unmotivational Christmas
Date: Tue Dec 26
Summary: My 2023 Christmas was unsatisfactory.
Feedback: The feedback is cynical. There are always people celebrating a happy first Christmas for *insert reason*. For example, first marriage couple Christmas, first baby Christmas, first Christmas in a new house, and first Christmas cancer free. On the other hand, I sense more sad Christmases for *insert reason*. I sense more people celebrating another melancholy Christmas.

I stand by my opinion on the blog; in particular, the paragraph: All leisure activities including birthdays and holidays require planning. It's an oxymoron work and effort must be completed for play and fun moments. Chaos is the result without work and effort. Chaotic leisure is not leisure. The rewards pay off after the work and effort are completed sincerely and satisfactory.

Motivation is required to celebrate a good Christmas. I'm happy my 2024 Christmas was satisfactory. I corrected my mistakes in 2023. I motivated myself. I hoped my motivation influenced others to work for their happy Christmas 2024.

The following blogs are honorable mentions: Kick The Can Down The Road, The Devil Is Persistent Collecting The Bills, and A Lesson From The Rich People.

Never Say Never To The Person Who Wore A Headlamp

A common knowledge is nobody can be too prepared in case of an emergency. Meet a person who can be an amateur rescue person. A person always wore a headlamp except when going to bed like taking off eyeglasses. The person placed the headlamp on the nightstand. The person feared darkness except sleeping.

Three events happened in a calendar year. The first event the person drove on the freeway home one winter night. One of the car's tires went flat. The car pulled over to the right shoulder with no streetlights. The person turned on the headlamp. The flat tire was exchanged with the spare tire. The person arrived home safely.

The second event the department participated in an offsite event one hot summer day. The building power shut down. The electrical generator stopped. Some of the emergency lights turned on. Almost total darkness. The person turned on the headlamp. The person led everyone to evacuate the building.

The third event a city blackout in a weekend autumn night. The person turned on the headlamp. Life continued. The emergency radio was on. The candles were lit. The person relaxed.

The fiction story is never say never. The improbable can happen. It's not absolute zero percent. There is always something new. Anything can happen. Anything new happens every day. It may be old to you. It can be new to another person.

The counterpoint to the story is the person could carry the headlamp in a pants pocket or jacket pocket instead of wearing the headlamp on the forehead during waking hours.

An Accident From Flying Lumber

An example of the improbable can happen. An example it's not absolute zero percent. Lumber falls from truck on Pennsylvania overpass, sweeps car right off highway. The YouTube description is the following: Dashcam video captured the moment a load of lumber flew off a truck driving on a Pennsylvania overpass and slammed into a car below.

The Dots Connect Backwards To Everything Except Financial Rewards

Blogger's note: Today's blog is posted at both Innovating Common Knowledge and Finding Raymond Mar.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." --Steve Jobs

I agree with the late Steve Jobs. I must trust myself what I'm doing today rewards me tomorrow. I have been doing the same since 2015. I review my existing job skills such as Excel and SQL. I learn new job skills such as Python and R. They're self job training. Job searching is five days a week. I exercise four days a week consisting of two days cardio and two days strength training. I read books. I write blogs. I cook. I eat healthy. I sleep well. I learn life skills such as tying knots, typing Morse Code, making paper airplanes, and memorizing jokes. I catch up what I missed in my 20s and 30s. My movie of the week is on Sundays. I play video games once a month. Never stop learning. Innovate infinitely. Get up and do something, anything. Furthermore, I do my fair share maintaining the household. Costs are minimized. I control my leisure spending. Most of the above are boring; however, I make them awesome. I socialize with people outside the family post-pandemic starting in Aug 2024.

I have been doing everything correct. I have been doing everything right. I'm an example there are people who do everything right. The favorable outcomes don't happen. No job. No income. No freedom. Life moves slowly at best. I'm an example life is unfair. There are winners and there are losers. I'm one of the losers. I'm an example being a loser beyond my control.

What am I going to do? The answer is continue the present path. There are no alternatives. There's nothing to lose. I pay my debts to the family. I appreciate all who supports me. I help the supporters when they need help. Playing video games, watching television, and eating processed foods seven days a week are unacceptable; I might as well die.

A Shout Out To The People Like Me

I'm open to all suggestions to help me escape being a loser. I'm open to all suggestions to correct my unrealized mistakes. However, I don't want to hear easy answers and clique solutions. Go back to school? No. Get a part-time job? Depends. Unlikely my job skills match any part-time position. Network? Overrated. There are too many people applying to the too few job openings. Attend job networking seminars? A waste of time for 90% of the unemployed attendees who are losers. Hire a professional to improve your job search? Waste of money. Most of a professional's advice can be found online for free. Freelance? Not a match with my background. You said do something, anything earlier--do something? I said it. I'm not doing anything half-ass. All-in or all-out. I have nothing to lose. It's a judgment call.

I recognize myself and I recognize the millions of long-term unemployed people with bad luck and bad timing. I recognize us as false losers. Good opportunities pass us. We do our best sincerely. We cause no trouble. We make our lives and the people in our lives as easy as possible.

Update On A Past Blog

Some people experience the opposite Life Is Good Because It's Predictable And Certain on Jan 20, 2025 when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. I wrote the blog on Jan 20, 2022. These people are uncomfortable living an unpredictable life. These people desire a predictable life with 99.9999. . .% accuracy. They don't want bombshells. They want to keep the same security blanket. The 47th President is uncertain as of today. The 2025-2028 future is unclear. Time is the ultimate judge Trump makes the correct decisions for the United States Of America.