It's A Fair Question

Good questions. Bad questions. Either way they can be fair questions. Nothing wrong. They are honest questions at the appropriate time and place. The person asking can't be attacked.

Are you honest?

Did you earn it? What did you do to earn it? Did you deserve it?

Are you entitled?

Are you a grade A person or a grade C person?

Is it your fault?

Why did you include him, her, it, or them? Why did you exclude him, her, it, or them?

Are you paying your share?

How much time did you apply?

Disclose your advantages. Disclose your disadvantages.

Is the answer correct? Are you correct?

What are the rules?

Happy Living An Alternate Life

My current life is the George Costanza from Seinfeld when he was unemployed and lived with his parents. I can live a life working in a crappy dead-end job while spending my free time watching TV and playing video games. Unacceptable. The life is a loser. I can upgrade somewhat. I live a life working in a white collar and dead-end job, struggle financially, spend time with weak friends, practice unhealthy habits, find little time to learn life skills, and spend little time job self-training. The idea adults must move out of their parent house just to move out of their parent house is questioned. The global pandemic exposes the truth independence can be overrated. Living independently may be deceptive independence is the way to live an adult life.

If anyone asks me if I'm happy, then my answer is I'm working on it. If anyone asks me if I'm happy yes or no, then my answer is yes. I accept my alternate life hoping its temporary.

Forget the average life. Forget the B's, C's, and D's graded life. Grade A life or grade F life. Success or failure. There is nothing between success and failure. I have nothing to lose. I'm fortunate I still have a choice how to live my life. I don't take the choice for granted.

Update On A Past Blog

The world is happy when I'm happy. I reference the last paragraph in Happy Life on Dec 21, 2010. Happy life is for everyone. Happy life must be earned and worked on. Happy life never comes to you and me on a silver platter. Go out and get happy--a happy life.

Point Blank Movie 5,464 Days Later

I can't explain why I watched the movie decades later. I watched Point Blank (1967) starring Lee Marvin tonight. The movie is part of a three DVD box set I purchased at the Chronicles Of Crime store in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on Nov 18, 2008. The other two DVDs are The Departed (2006) and Bullitt.

The Departed (2006) starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg. The movie won four Oscars including Best Picture at the 79th Academy Awards on Feb 25, 2007. Bullitt stared Steve McQueen. The movie included one of the best car chase scenes in movie history. The two cars were Bullitt's 1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT and the bad guys' 1968 Dodger Charger 400 Magnum in San Francisco, CA.

Update On A Past Blog

The Point Blank movie reminded me of another decades old purchase. I wrote The Big Book Of Beatrix Potter 5,902 Days Later on Nov 16, 2021. I purchased the book on Sep 2, 2005 at Half Price Books in Washington state. I finished the book on Oct 30, 2021.

Top Ten Plus Ten Equals Top Twenty All-Time Favorite Movies

There are 32 movies in my all-time favorite list from my About Me at my personal webpage Innovate Infinitely. I reduced the list to 20. It's time to rank my all-time favorites because I wrote The Shawshank Redemption is my new number one movie on the Update On A Past Blog on Apr 12, 2022 I've Been Doing Everything Correct Mostly replacing Good Will Hunting.

Here are my top ten plus ten equals top twenty all-time favorite movies.

20. Wall Street. A favorite for investors and salespeople. Michael Douglas won Best Actor for portraying Gordon Gekko. "The most valuable commodity I know of is information," said Gekko.

19. Office Space. The cult classic is a must watch for all white collar workers. Aged well.

18. Clerks. The cult classic is a must watch for all retail workers. Aged well.

Side story: I worked at Blockbuster Video in college. The store manager kept Clerks in the new releases section years after the movie was released on VHS.

17. Hot Fuzz. A comedy, action, mystery, and plot twist combined. I laughed for a long time during the beginning.

16. UP! An underrated Disney and Pixar movie. The people who say UP! is an all-time favorite other people gives them shocked looks. The movie needs more love.

15. Parasite (2019). The rock is just a rock at the end of any day. The first foreign language movie to win Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars.

14. A Few Good Men. I watched the movie for the first time in May 2017. Beforehand, I watched the famous Jack Nicholson "You can't handle the truth" scene every time I see A Few Good Men. I understand the quote. Tom Cruise is a good actor.

13. Stand By Me. Four kids with too much time in their hands took a weekend trip to find a dead body. I realized Stand By Me was my first coming of age movie as an adult. I wished I had their life wisdom when I was a child because they were wiser than my childhood.

12. Aliens. My personal four star science fiction movie. A 100 out of 100.

11. Toy Story. The only movie I watched in the theater nobody stopped laughing. A movie experience is positively strengthen when audience members react with everyone else.

10. Black Hawk Down. The movie producers did a good job adapting the book. I read the book. If the producers followed the book, then the movie was too complicated. Too much flow interruption. Too much politics. Too many characters to remember.

9. Titanic. The only movie I watched three times in movie theaters. I watched the movie twice in 1997. The third time was IMAX 3D on Apr 2012.

8. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. A family classic for all ages. Watch the original version.

7. Casablanca. Schedule a night with your significant other to watch the romantic drama with the most quoted movie lines in history. I'm sad to say I watched the movie once.

6. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The movie should have won Best Picture instead of Annie Hall.

5. Saving Private Ryan. My personal all-time favorite war movie. The movie should have won Best Picture instead of Shakespeare In Love.

4. The Dark Knight. The movie was all Heath Ledger. A 100 out of 100. If I name my favorite evil character, Heath Ledger's Joker comes to my mind first.

3. The Godfather. I include The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. Organized crime, drugs, power, greed, revenge, and the past. The Godfather Part II takes the upper hand because we see Vito Corleone in his early years.

2. Good Will Hunting. I watched the movie for the first time in Feb 2014. I believe if I watched the movie between 1997-2000, I could have experienced my grow up moment then instead of Sat Oct 4, 2008. "It's not your fault," said Sean Maguire.

The 12 remaining movies for honorable mention: 12 Angry Men, A League Of Their Own, All The President's Men, Ben Hur, Breaking Away, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, La La Land, Little Miss Sunshine, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, The Princess Bride, and The Sound Of Music.

1. The Shawshank Redemption. A friend in college watched The Shawshank Redemption in the theater. He told me the movie was boring. I watched the movie 9,108 days later from the date of release Oct 14, 1994 on Sep 21, 2019. No spoilers. There is a reason the movie is number one in iMDB's Top Rated 250 Movies.

Shelter In-Place COVID-19 Blog October 2023

California issued shelter in-place orders on Tue Mar 17, 2020. I have been logging the highlights and lowlights. There were fewer COVID-19 headlines. COVID-19 positive rates leveled after a summer spike. More mask mandates are coming back. The month went by slow; however, the more I think about Oct, the more I convince myself the month went by fast. The end of the day Oct went by slow.

Mon Oct 2. Shopped at Smart & Final first thing in the morning.

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman won the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine for developing the mRNA vaccine. The mRNA vaccine technology is used to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The letter m stands for Messenger. mRNA tells the cells to produce antibodies.

Tue Oct 3. The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for people ages 12 and older. The vaccine is protein based which targets the EG.5 strain and XBB omicron subvariant. Protein based vaccines gets the body's immune system to recognize small modified pieces of the virus it's targeting.

The Center For Disease Control (CDC) is no longer distributing the white vaccine cards. Recipients should contact their state health department's immunization information system to keep track of their COVID-19 vaccine shots.

Thur Oct 5. My morning errands were smog check for my car, AAA, and Safeway.

Fri Oct 6. A study published in the Lancete's EClinicalMedicine journal stated a person who feels sick long term and tested negative for COVID-19 may have long-cold. There are other respiratory infections related to the common cold and not related to COVID-19. It's too soon to determine the number of days defining long in long-cold. The symptoms include the common respiratory virus and the flu.

Four family members found guilty of conspiracy to defraud people by selling a COVID-19 miracle cure containing a toxic bleach. The product was called Miracle Mineral Solution under the guise of the Genesis II Church Of Health And Healing.

The CDC published a study 63% of hospitalizations Jan-Aug 2023 were people ages 65 and older. All other age groups admissions declined. 24% of all hospitalized patients were up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations. 90% of COVID-19 related deaths were people ages 65 and older. 155 people died due to COVID-19 on average per day. The majority were over 70 and/or immunocompromised. 43% of people ages 65 and older received the previous bivalent booster shot available from Sep 2022 to May 2023. 1.14 million people in the US died due to COVID-19. 52,000 people died in 2023 as of today.

Sun Oct 8. Watched the Dallas Cowboys at San Francisco 49ers Sunday Night Football 1st quarter, 3rd quarter, and 4th quarter.

Mon Oct 9. Shopped at Lucky's first thing in the morning.

Thur Oct 12. Went to a satellite Kaiser Hospital campus in the afternoon. There was no vaccine because supply ran out.

The Department Of Health And Human Services said 7 million Americans received the latest COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccines available are Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Novavax. Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are recommended for people ages 6 months and older. Novavax is recommended for people ages 12 and over. 18 million people received the 2022 bivalent booster at the same time last year. 56.5 million people received the bivalent booster as of May 2023 which is 17% of the US population.

A concern is the latest vaccine unavailable to children. One problem is distribution delays. People reported trouble finding doses or problems with their insurance.

Fri Oct 13. Arrived at the same satellite Kaiser Hospital campus at 8:20am. There was a line in front of the entrance. Vaccinations opened at 9am. I waited 20 minutes for my vaccine shot.

Wed Oct 18. Pfizer increased the price for a five day treatment Paxlovid at $1,390 for the commercial market. The federal government paid $529. Paxlovid is the COVID-19 antiviral drug which has been free since Dec 2021 when the FDA authorized the drug. Pfizer sells Paxlovid to health insurers in 2024. Pfizer plans to subsidize copays for commercially insured people from 2024 to 2028.

Tue Oct 24. Bank Of America, Costco Business Center, and helped my dad run an errand.

Wed Oct 25. Cruise operator Carnival was found negligent in an Australian class action lawsuit. The Ruby Princess liner departed from Sydney on Mar 8, 2020 for a 13-day cruise to New Zealand. The liner returned to Sydney 11 days later. 663 passengers were infected with COVID-19. 28 people died.

The lead plaintiff Susan Karpik sued for $230,000 in damages. Karpik was awarded the cost of her medical expenses because she didn't experience long COVID-19. Carnival refunded all passengers on the Ruby Princess. Carnival offered free cancellations for cruises on Mar 9, 2020. All cruises were suspended on Mar 13, 2020.

Thur Oct 26. The CDC reported from a survey of thousands of Americans 2% of children and 7% of adults got the latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine. The latest version targets the XBB.1.5 omicron variant. The government transitioned distribution from the federal government to commercial. Case numbers are low; however, 18,000 are hospitalized and 1,200 people die on average per week.

Mon Oct 30. Went to O'Reilly Auto Parts and Toyota.

Tue Oct 31. Bay Area counties Santa Clara, Marin, Alameda, San Mateo, Contra Costa, and Sonoma hospitals, clinics, and long term care facilities must follow county mask mandates. The counties fear an increase in COVID-19 and RSV cases. The mask mandates begins on Nov 1, 2023 and ends on Mar 31, 2024.

The CA state positivity rate was 6% in mid Oct. Santa Clara County wastewater transmission data indicated medium levels at the end of Oct.

Update On A Past Blog

I'm living my last hours of borrowed time being unemployed from the blog Unemployed Borrowed Time I wrote on Apr 27, 2018. The borrowed time has been lasting at least five years with a COVID-19 global pandemic delay. I don't know what happens when time is up. I don't know my actions when time is up. Death is at the bottom of the outcomes list. I continue doing the best I can staying sharp.

The Times Are Changing continues. I wrote 2020 was a year of significant changes including government shelters in-place, black lives matter, modified professional sports seasons, and online school learning. I wrote the blog on Sep 17, 2020. Some 2023 significant changes are inflation, Ukraine war, climate changes, former President Donald Trump's criminal charges, and the Gaza Strip war.

I also wrote Beelzebub collected the bills past due during the 2009-2010 global recession. Beelzebub collects today. There are more people he made deals before the global pandemic. There are more bills past due.

The times are changing.

Throwback Blog: Me Versus My Sinus Infection

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 Me Versus My Sinus Infection written on Apr 3, 2011. I got Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV. The blog is my personal cautionary tale how I take care of myself when I'm sick. What do I do. What don't I do. Don't fight fatigue; take a nap. No NyQuil. No orange juice from concentrated. Yes to milk chocolate. No DayQuil. Yes to water; however, no eight glasses a day. No vitamin C tablets. No green tea. No cranberry juice. No pomegranate juice. Yes to Coke. Yes to fully cooked meals. No to saline solutions. No to codeine. No to Nasonex. No to chewing gum. Yes to sleep. No to Ricola. Yes to Chloraseptic throat lozenges. Yes to being calm.

Further, I minimize eating junk food. Eat healthy meals. Eat something when hungry; for example, Snickers candy bars are better than Pop Tarts.

I got a minor stomach flu after my RSV. I blogged Me Versus My Stomach Flu on Apr 14, 2011.

I wrote three more sinus infections blogs: Me Versus My Sinus Infection II on Sep 25, 2011, Me Versus My Sinus Infection III on Mar 11, 2012, and Me Versus My Sinus Infection IV on Dec 7, 2012.

The month of March I battled a sinus infection. I want to document the days I got infected and how I treated myself. I continue to fight my sinus infection as of the time I posted the blog. This sinus infection is one of the worse I can remember. I document the events by date:

February 2011. I experienced many days of fatigue. I took many naps in the afternoon. There were days I fought fatigue by avoiding afternoon naps or sleeping early and skipping homework.

Mon Feb 28 to Sat March 5. Sickness developed. I felt really tired on Sat Mar 5. I should have went home after an event in the afternoon. I took NyQuil and drank Whole Foods orange juice in the evening.

Fri Mar 4. Purchased Trader Joe’s orange juice and milk chocolate.

Sun Mar 6. Cough developed.

Mon Mar 7 to Fri Mar 11. Full sickness. I had trouble sleeping most of the week. I skipped my De Anza classes.

Mon Mar 7. Stopped taking NyQuil and DayQuil.

Tue Mar 8. Sickness got worse. I forgot to drink water. I applied Visine because I had red watery eyes.

Wed Mar 9. Took 1,000mg vitamin C, drank more coke, drank green tea, and drank 100% ocean spray cranberry/pomegranate juice once. I resumed drinking water. I applied Visine again because I had red watery eyes. I coughed mucus that included blood. The mucus cough went away at night time.

Thur Mar 10. Stopped drinking green tea. Drank more coke. Best night sleep of the week.

Fri Mar 11. Got worse. I got a bump below my right ear and above my jaw line. I researched online. Some websites stated my lymph node was swollen because it fought a foreign substance. My guess was I ate a piece of sausage partially cooked. The sausage looked cooked from the outside. I took a few bites and my bump appeared immediately. I made the choice to visit my doctor on Saturday. He has office hours in the morning all Saturdays except the last Saturday of the month.

Sat Mar 12. My doctor was closed on Saturday. I went to the San Jose Medical Center Urgent Care. The doctor diagnosed me I had a sinus infection. He prescribed me an anti-biotic. He also told me to take Mucinix D and use a saline solution.

I went to Costco to purchase my anti-biotic and a three pack of saline solution in aerosol cans.

Sat Mar 12 to Fri Mar 18. Significant improvement. I slept well all days. My cough was in control. I attended classes. I returned the saline solution to Costco because my second can failed to spray the solution up my nose. I used a squeeze bottle solution my dad had for a total of 5-7 times throughout the week. The last two times I used plain warm water.

Mon Mar 21. Post nasal drip acted up again. My guess was the cold temperatures when I was out of the house on Fri Mar 18 and Sun Mar 20 affected me. I was sensitive to the cold. I’m sensitive to hot weather when I’m healthy.

Tue Mar 22. I visited my primary care physician. He prescribed me five extra days of anti-biotic, codeine, and Nasonex. My doctor said the doctor at the urgent care center prescribed me a “powerful” anti-biotic. My doctor said sinus infection takes a long time to recover. I don’t have bronchitis.

I went to Costco to get codeine and Nasonex. I took codeine and Nasonex before I went to sleep. I went to sleep hours later.

Wed Mar 23. I chewed gum to help control my cough in the afternoon. The gum failed to control my cough when I went to bed. I started to drink warm water. I took codeine and Nasonex before I went to sleep. The cough was the worse when I was lying in bed trying to sleep.

Thur Mar 24. I stopped taking codeine. I continued Nasonex and drank warm water.

Fri Mar 25. I turned on the heater in the house to 62 degrees in the morning. I never turn on the heat in the mornings. I wore a heavier jacket and a scarf to keep warm when I’m outdoors.

Sat Mar 26. I stopped taking all medications. I started to drink Trader Joe’s hot cocoa. I continued drinking green tea and took 1,000mg of vitamin C.

Mon Mar 28. I went back to the gym for a light workout. I was still cold sensitive.

Tue Mar 29. I started my stretches before I workout at the gym. No gym, just stretches. I did 75 sit-ups.

Wed Mar 30. I slept late because I drank tea late. I coughed a lot; however, the coughing stopped immediately when I slept with blankets. I continued drinking warm water and Coke when I ate lunch and dinner.

Thur Mar 31. I stopped drinking Coke. Today was unseasonably warm. I was still cold sensitive such that the morning and the evening I wore long sleeve shirt and pants. I coughed when I wore short sleeve shirt and shorts. I went to the gym for a light workout. I coughed a little. I felt mucus dripping down my throat causing mild irritation. I was able to sleep regardless.

Fri Apr 1. I took 500mg of vitamin C instead of 1,000mg. Coughing and mucus dripping down my throat continued infrequently. Weather was unseasonably warm I brought warmer clothes in case I get cold when I’m out of the house.

Currently. Mild cough and mucus dripping down my throat continues infrequently. I have two or three major coughs lasting at least five seconds. The mucus drippings are good because mucus is moving the foreign substances away from my body. It’s treating me from my sinus infection. I can still sleep. I drink plenty of water. I maintain my thinking I’m cold sensitive.

Q&anp;A

I ask myself questions to understand and to prepare myself the next time I have a sinus infection.

What is Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV? I blogged RSV in March 2008. March 2008 was the last time I had to visit the doctor for a sinus infection. I heard about RSV in the news. Now that I think about it, I have RSV which is my sinus infection. My recovery took me weeks three years ago. The same is happening now. There is no cure. I had to battle and tough it out gradually going back to my normal routine just like what I’m doing now.

What was your treatment if you didn’t need anti-biotics from a doctor? I took 1,000mg of vitamin C, drank green tea, ate Trader Joe’s chocolate because it controlled my cough, drank Simply Orange, ate lots of fruit, took Ricola to control my cough or Chloraseptic throat lozenges to relief itchy throat when I slept, and drank Coke.

Ricola stopped working after the next sickness. I suspected store bought orange juice I drank this time contributed to making my sickness worse. I avoid drinking store bought orange juice for the rest of my life.

My personal treatment worked in 2009 and 2010.

What sickness do you usually get? Stomach flu or coughing with post nasal drip sinus infection or not.

Why do you blog your sinus infection? I want to reference how I recovered my sinus infection or RSV and share to everyone how I recovered.

There were days you showed improvement. Then you got worse. What do you think happened? I ate partially cooked sausage on Fri Mar 11 which I think gave me an infection that lead to a sinus infection. I failed to keep warm that happened on Fri Mar 18 and Sun Mar 20 which I think gave me the RSV. It was a double whammy.

Could you have prevented the sickness? Take naps when I was tired. Eat when I’m hungry. I remember my family and I visited Monterey. I ate little during the one day trip and I got sick days later. The symptoms were the same as my sinus infection; fortunately, my personal treatment was enough for a full recovery.

My eat when I’m hungry attitude saved my Fall ’10 quarter. I ate lots of Pop Tarts and candy bars. I believed I managed to avoid getting sick despite eating all that junk food.

Sleep off the fatigue instead of fight it.

I believe another contributing factor was my personal haircut lady at my salon. She was sneezing and had a stuffy nose when she cut my hair.

What could you have done differently? The sleepless nights coughing should have told me my sickness was serious and I needed a doctor to examine me. The doctor might need to prescribed me prescription drugs.

Too Many 5's And 6's Dice Rolls Playing Axis & Allies

Axis & Allies made by Milton Bradley Company was a board game I played in high school. I sucked. I remember there was a chance I win one game. There were five of us. I teamed up with a straight A student friend who was like the late Steve Jobs without charisma. He knew how to play the game. We were the Axis. I played Germany. He played Japan. The other three friends were the Allies Russia, Great Britain, and United States.

My friend guided me where to put my soldiers, tanks, and planes. My friend suggested where to attack, where to place my armaments, and when to save money. He wanted to win. He wanted me to win. He cared. We lost. What happened? The answer was I rolled too many 5's and 6's. I rolled too few low numbers to attack and to defend. I rolled too few low numbers to win battles. Pathetic. My friend suggested a different method to roll the dice. Unsuccessful. My fault? Yes. Bad luck? Yes.

Two of the three friends playing the Allies were smart students. They enrolled in advanced classes. One of them could bowl a 200 score. The other friend was fluent in English and Spanish.

Tabletop Gaming Curse

If there is a term for bad luck playing tabletop games, then give me the term; otherwise, I assign myself the tabletop gaming curse. I realize connecting the dots backwards bad luck factored in my losses. All games involving luck include dice rolling, drawing cards, drawing tiles in Mahjong, and spinning I experience more bad luck than good luck. The odds are in favor of my opponents. The over 50% probability are in favor of my opponents.

Likewise for my present life. I lost count the number of times I was the second choice for a job hire. There were job hires cancelled due to a director overriding the hiring manager, budget cuts, and breech of procedures not my fault. Curses are meant to be broken. I don't know how to break a bad luck curse.