Week3 August Reflection 2023

Dear Vishi, this is third weekly reflection for Aug, 2023.

Picking a stock

It's been months since I bought any stocks. Recently I sold $SAIC stock. But picking a stocks is a tedious process for me. I want to invest in stock or ETF this month.

First I calculate moving average for each stocks.

Another filter I try use is to pick stocks with dividend. Even if the stocks plummet in its value, you can still grow your portfolios by reinvesting dividend.

Commute to office

It takes me almost 30 minutes to reach to office. Most of the time I am stuck at morning traffic. I have few options how to utilitze this time while on car

Call home (talk to parents at Indian time)
Listen to music.
Listen to audiobooks or a podcast.
Watch a movie.
Listen to pink/white noise.
Learn spanish.

Watching a movie always make me nervous as it may not be legal to watch while driving. Even audiobooks distracts me. I have sleep apnea so I don't like talking to anyone in the morning. If I was commuting on a train, I would probably add reading. So it boils down to these choices.

Listen to music.
Listen to pink/white noise.
Learn Spanish.

Food

Restaurants

I bought P.F. Chang's Chicken Lo Mein from Food lion. It was frozen and I probably not going to purchase it again. The only frozen noodles that I liked so far were Ajinomoto Vegetable Yakisoba from costco. But I dont have costco membership anymore.

I also ate at following resturants this week (I would probably would go bankrupt spending money on food):

Chipotle: Bowl with no rice, both beans, chicken, fajitas, tomatoes, corn, guac, no lettuce.
Panera: Buy two option. Baja Bowl (extra avacado) with tomato soup.
Taco Bell: Power menu bowl with chicken and black bean chalupa supreme.
Tikka Shack: Spinach Masala with extra veggies, chicken and rice.
Ilios crafted greek: Chicken Sandwitch with beet salad.
Chick-fil-A: Grilled sandwitch wtih Cobb salad. I really liked Charred Tomato Crispy Red Bell Peppers.

Recipe

Rajma (kidney beans)

Soak Rajma overnight in water.
Pressure cook in Insatapot for 20 min with water.
Add avacado oil on a pan. Saute with mustard seeds. Add chopped onion, masala, chopped tomatoes. Let it cook in medium heat for 10 minutes.
Mix rajma in the gravy.
Best enjoyed with cooked rice on the side.

Video Games

I am enjoying playing Fifa 19. I mostly play Journey mode. I enjoy shuffling between three characters. Also playing soccer with controller is much more fun compare to shooting game.

Car Registration Renew

I had to renew my car registration online. Earlier I also did a car state inspection from Firestone. I was bummed when Firestone told me that my car inspection can only pass if I replace my beam wiper blade for \$53. I don't know if they charged me legit this was really required or they duped me into buyting it. But I acquiesced as I really wanted leave that place after waiting for more than two hours. State Inspection cost me \$30 with labor.

Pratice against ping pong robot

There's a ping pong robot at Table tennis club, Charlotte. It's fun to pratice against it. However I am not seeing any improvement in my game. Last Thursday's league game, I had the worst performance. I had few nice serves but made too many unforced errors.

Tennis

I am trying to improve my backend return. I had a an hour coaching with Zack in Huntersville for tennis for $50. He showed me how to use a backhand properly. I am still trying to improve it.

ESPP contribution

An employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) is a company-run program in which participating employees can purchase company stock at a discounted price.

I have contributed 7% of my paycheck. I will need to read more about it to understand more.

Programming

I solved leetcode problem: time based key-value store