I cleaned my room this past weekend. Actually, I only cleaned the TV/multimedia stand since I wanted to put two more speakers on the stand. Previously, there was a Samsung 50″ LCD TV, a Yamaha 5.1 amplifier, bookshelf speakers, center speaker, and random small stuff like a Nintendo Switch and a DJI Mavic Mini drone. I freed up a pair of Rokit 5 studio monitors and I wanted to put in on the same stand and connect them to a Chromecast Audio so I can stream music from Spotify. I know… needlessly complicated.
Chromecast Audio (discontinued)
When I pull the stand away from the wall, the back of the stand was covered with an amazing amount of dust. It took a dozen wet wipes to get everything kinda clean. It not only the stand but every flat surface in the house has a lot of dust on it. I do not know where it comes from. Maybe the toll road a short distance away, jets overhead to/from John Wayne Airport, something else? I decided to get a small air filter for my room to see if it will help. After reading a bunch of reviews, I ended up buying a Blue Pure 411 Auto for $120 on Amazon. A coworker told me about the brand many years ago. Her husband has really bad allergies so they have a large Blueair unit in each room with HEPA filters. The “Auto” means the air filter will sample the air quality and adjust the fan speed accordingly. I thought the air quality was pretty bad, hence the dust, but the air filter says the air is “good” and has kept the fan on low. I will let it run for awhile and see how dirty the filter element gets.
One good thing about the filter unit is that it is very quiet. With the fan on low, I put my iPhone on top of the unit will a sound meter running. The average sound level is 35 dB. It is barely noticeable and I usually have music playing softly while I sleep anyway.
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These are the first generation Rokit 5 monitors by KRK. I have had these for a long time. They have their own amplifiers (bi-amped) built-in to the speakers so you do not need a separate amp. I think they were around $150/each when I purchased them. They sound better up close than from across the room however.
I believe KRK is currently selling the fourth generation of their Rokit monitors.
Ugh. It is pretty cool that Medicare covers dialysis and transplant costs, but everything is so confusing. It is even worse if you have a secondary insurance from work or somewhere else. I endured several months of claim confusion and screwups during the time when Medicare switched to be my primary insurance.
Anyway, the rules state that I can keep Medicare for three years post-transplant. Since Medicare paid 80% of all my medical bills, except for prescriptions, while my work insurance paid the rest, I assume that arrangement will stay the same for the next three years. However, due to my prior salary, my monthly Medicare premiums for Part B is ~$500/month or ~$6000/year. Under coordination of benefit rules, I had to get Medicare since my work insurance will not pay for dialysis after 33 months. They did pay for the remaining 20% of medical bills and all prescriptions.
The premiums for my work insurance is $0; it is covered by the company. I do have a $3400 out-of-pocket maximum, which I hit in January each year due to dialysis. Post-transplant, Medicare continues to pay for 80% of my medical appointments, while my work insurance pays for the rest. Since they are secondary, the $3400 out of pocket max does not apply so I have not paid any medical bills this year, except for co-pays on medications.
So the question is whether I should continue to pay $6000/year for Medicare. If I cancel coverage, then my work insurance will cover everything, subject to the $3400 out-of-pocket max. Without dialysis, I have never come close that number so I will save a few thousand dollars a year. I cannot think of any downsides, other than if I lose my job. I also need to make sure there are no weird rules that says I have to have Medicare while eligible. I would make sense for my work insurance since they (or our company since we are self-insured) end up paying less if I keep Medicare. Also, if I quit or get fired, Medicare will keep covering 80% of my medical bills for three years; I am not sure how long COBRA lasts and it probably cost more than Medicare.
I posted this question on Reddit. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable has experienced the same issues and can help. I will probably call my work insurance too to see if they have any advice.
Looking at the data for Orange County, it definitely looks like the number of cases have dropped to very low levels. People are still testing positive, but the daily number of deaths have been in single digits for all of March. However, if you look at the entire US, there seems to be a slight increase in cases recently, and the infection rate has remained steady at 50k+ for the past month.
Since the weather was so nice, I went for a walk to the local park. There must have been over 200 people in the small park, and hardly anyone had a mask on. I don’t know… seems like everything the numbers get better, a bunch of people start socially gathering right away without any precautions, and the number of cases shoot up. I am still being careful since I am still taking two anti-rejection medications. Hopefully we do not have another COVID spike with the new variants, or this mess will never end.
During my last appointment, I asked the doctor if I could return to work. She said as long as I felt okay, she is fine with me working from home. I followed-up with a medical release form required by my work, got it signed by UCLA, and they faxed it in. Everything has been approved so I am officially back to full-time work starting Monday, April 5th.
My boss, the company CFO, made some organizational changes recently. He did not show me the new org chart, buy a co-worker took a photo and sent it to me. There were a lot of changes, but the one that impacts me the most is adding two layers of managers above me. During the past 10 years, I mostly worked directly under the CFO. However, now it is CFO > Senior Director of Accounting > Director of Finance > me. It is kind of weird since I have the same title as my direct manager but I have been there much longer. The good thing is that all four of us worked previously at the same company for a long time and have known each other for over 20 years. The CFO did say that the reason for my org tree shuffle is because I need to pick up some new responsibilities. Once that’s done, I should be reporting directly to him again. I spoke to the director above me and he did not mention that fact. For now, I do not care that much since my salary did not change, and my “management” will likely stay out of my business.
I also got back the three employees that used to report to me before I switched to part-time last year. I am fine with this since I know them already and they are pretty good employees. I just do not like doing formal performance reviews since I usually talk to my staff daily.
Since most people at work are not vaccinated yet, I will work from home full-time. I am not sure when I will actually go into the office, but it will be several months out if it happens. There is probably about a half-dozen new hires that I have not met yet. Strange to think 10 years ago I was the only corporate finance employee other than the CFO.
The site of the shooting is about 8 miles from my house. I do not usually drive through that area but the Raising Cane’s in Tustin is a few blocks away. At first, I was worried that it was a random shooting, but it looks more and more like the shooter knew the victims personally and through their business. Still pretty bad, but different from a purely random or gang related shootings.
I have been sleeping pretty well last few days, but for some reason, I cannot fall asleep tonight. It is 3:45 pm and I have not slept at all. Instead, I have been browsing Reddit and came across this post. It is nothing new; there is probably something about “free healthcare” posted every minute. Since Reddit users are mostly young and liberal, you can guess how these discussion usually go.
Politically, I am probably more liberal socially (for an American) and more conservative fiscally. Basically people should be able to do what they want, as long as I do not have to pay for it. Also, the post above is asking doctors for their opinion. I am not a doctor, just an experienced patient, but I feel qualified to discuss the financial impact of “universal” healthcare.
First, some data. Medicare was 14% of the US federal spending in 2019, or about $644 billion. Next, the medical insurance recorded medical costs of $632 billion and administrative costs of $88 billion. Overall, the industry only has a 3% profit margin, or about $22 billion. If we enacted “free’ healthcare, in the short-term, Medicare costs will increase by 100% or more since costs will not change much initially, but demand will likely increase. In 2019, insurance companies collected $735 billion in premiums so I guess companies/individuals can just pay that as a tax. However, since half of the population do not pay taxes, the impact of any new “healthcare” tax will impact middle and upper class Americans. Another issue is Medicare reimbursement rates are much lower than private insurance. A lot of doctors either do not take Medicare or limits the number of Medicare patients. What happens when Medicare is the universal insurance? Will doctors and hospitals agree to what essentially a huge pay cut?
Finally, as mention above, I really hate the word “free” because it is not free. In reality, it just means someone else is paying for it. Reddit comments like to say that insurance profits will save lots on medical costs. Yes, $22 billion is a lot of money, but it is tiny compared to the size of the healthcare market. The solution is probably to focus on preventive medicine and force doctors and hospitals to make less money. Will that work?
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Since I am missing a lot of demographic data, I will use my company as an example. We are self-funded, which means the company pays an insurance company (Blue Shield) a small fee ($40 PEPM*) to use their provider network and negotiated prices. Our costs are around $850 PEPM, and some employees pay a premium. If we use $800/month, that works out to $9,600 per employee annually. If the company pays that to the government as a corporate healthcare tax, then I am agnostic. However, I know from speaking to our insurance broker that $850 PEPM is very low, as our employee base is pretty young. Most other companies in the industry spend more. Our company switched to a self-funded model to save money, but a universal healthcare tax may just spread costs based on averages and we would pay more. Even worse, if our company just gave everyone $10k to cover the new healthcare tax, I am pretty sure my tax increase will be a lot more than the $10k since I am in the group that pays taxes.
Sigh. I see the benefit of universal healthcare. People do not have to worry about going bankrupt from medical bills, and it will probably increase the health of poorer Americans. However, if we cannot control costs, then we could have worse health outcomes and a damaged economy. I have a lot of relatives in Canada. They pay a lot more taxes for their “free” healthcare, and while it seems like a better system for small health problems, it is absolutely terrible for serious illnesses.
The weather was pretty weird today. Temperatures have been pretty cold these past few days but it was really hot today. The high was 88°F and my dad almost turned on the air conditioning. I was going to take a walk but waited until 7:30pm when it was a bit cooler.
I tried to walk a bit faster today and ended up walking ~1.5 miles with a pace of 18’30”. The Apple Fitness app finally gave me credit on the green exercise ring, but only 15 minutes even though I walked for about 27 minutes. I am not exactly sure what counts as a “brisk” walk.
One of the goals I set for myself post-heart surgery was to run a 5K race in 2020. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic hit and shut everything down. I also had some heart issues with a-fib and excess fluids in my chest. Now that I am feeling better post-transplant, I want to try for the same goal again. I downloaded the C25K app on my iPhone back then but deleted it mid-last year. I will download it again and try to follow the workouts. Gotta start somewhere.
I previously posted about my problems trying to expand my NAS from 6TB to 12TB. Well, I finally have every thing up and running again. In addition, I am trying out a new backup process. Since I have all my movies and TV shows backed up on portable external hard drives, I did not include those folders in the NAS backup. Instead, selected everything but those two folders and documents from my parents’ PC, and backed them up to the 3TB external drive connected to the back of the NAS. I also created a backup of all the backups from each PC in the house, in case we lose a computer and the NAS at the same time. Finally, I created a partition for Time Machine to back up my Macbook Air. Whew! It is a bit confusing, but I think I have two or three copies of every computer file, including video and music files.
Two remaining issues though. One, I cannot seem to get Time Machine to backup to the NAS. I am logged in to the NAS from my Mac using administrator credentials, yet it keeps giving me a backup failure error. The other Time Machine backup to a portable 1TB external hard drive works fine. Two, somehow I lost track of a folder containing all the 3D movies I downloaded. There was probably 25 to 30 movies, and each file was between 2GB and 3GB. I must have erased it when I was backing up then resetting/erasing the NAS. I cannot even remember the folder path, but I clicked through all the files folders on my PC and NAS, and cannot find the 3D movie files. It took a long time to download each movie file. I guess I will have to do it all over again if I want to watch movies in 3D on my VR goggles.
I am not sure where the idea came from, but I decided to try and ride a bike outside today instead of walking. I have two bicycles: a 2003 Giant NRS3 mountain bike, and a 2015 Trek 7.4 fitness (hybrid) bike. I believe I purchased the mountain bike for about $1,200 and the hybrid bike for $750. I had another hybrid bike that I bought in high school but gave it to someone at church a long time ago.
My bike is silver and blue, but the rest is identical.
I bought the mountain bike while I was still married, and would go riding with some church people. The group rode pretty often and had much more expensive equipment than my Giant. We would usually ride the Fullerton Loop, and I would always be the last to finish. It was fun in the summer, but we also rode in the winter when it was already dark. I had to buy super bright halogen lights to see where I was going.
Fullerton Loop
After moving to Orange and having my sister move back to SoCal from Oregon, I wanted to ride some of the paved bike paths in Irvine. The mountain bike was fine, but it was super heavy. I also did not want a expensive road bike, so I bought the Trek. It has an upright frame, but has super skinny road tires.
Trek 7.4 FX. I have the same exact bike, even the same color.
I literally rode the bike only once after I purchased it. Having not ridden for a long time, I went on a long ride with my sister and niece. I was fine until I was not fine. I probably overexerted myself and my legs cramped. I think my sister rode home first, and came in her station wagon to pick me up. Totally embarrassing. Before I knew it, I started dialysis and did not feel like I have the energy to ride a bike anymore.
So today was the second time I rode my “new” bike from five or six years ago. It was both easier and harder than I imagined. I was a bit wobbly at first, but as the saying goes, I was riding fine after about five minutes. I learned how to ride a bike in elementary school so over 40 years ago. Since I could not find my bike helmet, I just rode in our neighborhood. It was pretty easy until I had to go up a slight hill, and it suddenly became difficult. In the end, I only rode for 17 minutes and covered ~2.5 miles. Next time, I am going to buy/find a bike helmet and see if I can ride a bit farther, even though my house is surrounded by hills.
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Looking on Amazon at bike helmets, it is pretty evident there are two groups of products. One group are the ubiquitous cheap Chinese products, some selling as low as $20, and having strange and awkward brand names. This is common for a lot of products. Each one would be virtually identical to several other products, but would have a “brand” name of seemingly random letters. The other group of bike helmets are $50+ and made by Giro; my “lost” helmet is also made by Giro. The dilemma is whether to save money and go with a cheaper helmet, or go with a brand name. For a bike helmet that could possible save my life or protect from brain damage if I fall/crash, I think I will spend the extra money. I am super leery of crappy Chinese products, and have been actively avoiding anything “Made in China” as much as possible. Apple really need to get their shit together and rethink their supply/manufacturing chain.
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Speaking of the China supply chain, I am not usually the liberal social justice warrior, but this China using slave labor to make stuff (in this case cotton) is disgusting.
I purchased a Network Attached Storage (NAS) server several years ago to store and share my media collection. It was a Synology DJ218+, which has two drive bays, and a 6TB Western Digital Red Pro drive. The combo has been working great, except I was running out of space on the drive. Since the NAS still had an empty drive bay, I purchased another 6TB drive (Western Digital Red Plus), and inserted it thinking I would get 12TB of storage.
Nope.
The default setup of the NAS storage volumes is Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), which is basically a RAID 1 configuration. RAID 1 makes a duplicate of the stored data so two 6TB drives only yields 6TB of total storage, not 12TB. Of course, I did not know this so I had to wait for the NAS to finish duplicating the 5.5TB of data so I can reset the entire system and start over. Resetting also means wiping all the data on the NAS. Luckily I had enough excess storage spread across multiple devices to back everything up. It took me two days to figure out how to set the NAS up for RAID 0, which is combining both drives into one storage volume. Now I am restoring all the data back on to the NAS. First volume contains all the movies and TV shows, which totals 3.57TB. I am doing this on my PC and the dialog box said it will take 10 hours and 30 minutes.
Ugh.
After that is done, I still have to restore other videos, music, photos, and other non-media data. This may take an entire week. I also need to figure out how to back up all this data. I was using a 4TB drive for movies and TV shows, and another 3TB drive for the rest. I guess that is still sufficient for now but eventually I will need more storage. It is like a slowly spreading disease.
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So about three hours have passed and the Windows dialog box says… 11 hours to go. WTF?! It looks like the transfer rate is ~100MB/sec so 3.57TB should take 3.57 x 1024 x 1024 / 100 / 60 / 60 = 10.4 hours. Hey, the 10 hour 30 minute initial estimate was pretty good. Don’t know what happened during the last three hours though.
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30 minutes later and the estimate dropped to 7 hours. These estimates are not very consistent. It says there is 2.39TB to go, which works out to about… 7 hours.
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Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! I hit [Esc] by accident and the copy process stopped. I just dragged over the two folders again. Hopefully it will lat me skip identical files. Otherwise I just wasted 3.5 hours. 😭
16 hours?!
The transfer speed just picked up again to ~100MB/sec so it “should” copy all the remaining files in about 7 hours then ask me what to do with duplicates. Actually, I was trying to take a screenshot of the above when I hit [Esc].
If you are wondering about the current filename, it is a Korean movie. It is probably similar to something like Revenge of the Nerds. The entire movie with English subtitles can be found on YouTube but it will not let me embed it here.
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It is 3:00 am in the morning and the file copy dialog box says 1.9TB remaining and about 7 hours left. The movies folder is completely copied over, and I can see TV show filenames being copied. It will likely end before the 7 hours and ask me if I want to skip or replace the duplicate files from the first copy attempt.
I am not sure which component is the speed bottleneck. The NAS is connected via Ethernet through a gigabit switch, along with the Windows 10 PC that is doing the copying. The source files are on a 4TB external hard drive connected to the PC via USB 3.0 (5 Gbit/sec). I guess if one byte = 8 bits, then 100MB/sec is 800Mbit/sec, pretty close to the gigabit Ethernet speed limit. Also, the maximum transfer rate on the NAS is 112MB/sec so maybe 100MB/sec is normal.
My “data center”
The Synology DJ218+ NAS server is the white box in the middle. To the right is a 1TB external hard drive connected via USB 2.0 that is backing up all the documents on three Windows 10 PCs. To the right of that is a 3TB external hard drive backing up the NAS, except for movies/TV show files. Those are backed up to the 4TB external hard drive mentioned above. The 4TB drive also had built-in Wifi so I can take it with me on trips and stream video to iPhone/iPad using VLC. On the left is a 550VA APC uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The NAS, two external hard drives, Ethernet switch, cable modem, Wifi router, and a LED desk lamp are all connected to the UPS. With 12TB (or 10.8TB useable) of disk space, I probably will need to replace the 1TB external hard drive with something larger, maybe 8TB or more.
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I’m going back to sleep. Hopefully the copying will be done when I wake up in a few hours.
I received a mysterious FedEx package this morning. Usually packages sent via FedEx priority overnight are pretty important since it costs a bit of money to send. Since it was addressed to me and UCLA, I called the Transplant Center to find out more information. I ended up leaving a voicemail and also sending a message to them as well. The box inside the package was from a company called Natera and it also had the word Prospera on it.
Someone from UCLA did call me back after a few hours and said it was to collect blood samples for a DNA study. I remember enrolling in the program and agreeing to have a phlebotomist come to my house and draw blood. However, I did not receive any calls prior to receiving the package, which caused the confusion. Indeed, I just received a call from Natera to schedule the phlebotomist appointment. I mentioned I was going to UCLA’s Laguna Hills lab to draw blood next week, so I will just bring the kit with me and only get poked once.
The program is a tool for early detection of transplanted organ rejection. They test the blood for my sister’s DNA since it is in her donated kidney. However, the percentage should be very small. If they detect the amount of donor DNA increasing, it could mean the organ is being rejected by my immune system and spilling cell parts into the bloodstream. I had to sign a bunch of consent forms so I don’t know if I am a patient or a test subject. Either way, it seemed pretty clever.
I had another video call with UCLA this morning. The doctor I spoke with thought we had never met before, but I remember she was the nephrologist that evaluated me back in October 2019 for a possible transplant with my friend as the possible donor. Of course, I then had a heart attack/bypass surgery later in November so all that got put on hold.
My labs are pretty stable from the prior appointment. She did increase the tacrolimus dosage by 1 mg, so I am taking four pills in the morning and four pills in the evening. I was hoping they would cut down on that anti-rejection medication since there are many possible side effects. She did say that I can go to a two week appointment cycle so my next call is early April.
I also asked her about returning to work early. She basically said it was up to me. If I felt okay, then I can return to work (from home). She also said I can relax the raw/cold food restrictions, and meet with small groups of people as long as it it outdoors and everyone wears a mask. The risk of COVID-19 infection plus not knowing the effectiveness of the vaccine in transplant patients means I should err on the side of caution.
When I spoke to a nephrologist from UCLA this morning, I asked her about social gatherings. I was given pretty restrictive guidelines post-transplant but I wanted to see if things have changed. She basically said if it is outdoors and everyone has a mask on, then it should be okay. My parents made a reservation at a Chinese restaurant this weekend but I think the seats are indoors. I think I am going to have to skip the meal based on what the doctor said. She did say that if I felt fine, I can go back to work.
I checked the latest COVID-19 data for Orange County, and it does look much better. Here is data from the OCCOVID site:
This is daily number of new cases for all time. You can clearly see the two spikes in cases back in July last year, and during year-end. Also, the new case count seems to have decreased dramatically. I am not sure if this is due to the vaccines since no one was wearing a mask when I was walking in the park yesterday. Out of about a hundred people that I saw, me and this one other guy was the only people wearing masks. Two weeks ago, most people I saw did have masks on. Is another spike coming as people begin to relax and meet socially again?
During the screening process, I was asked several times whether I had pets in the house. Other than dog-sitting my sister’s two dogs, I do not have any pets. I used to have a few hamsters but that was a long time ago. I also took care of my ex-wife’s cat a few months post-divorce. That was miserable since I am allergic to cats and had to take Benadryl every day.
I finally looked up this topic online and found this from the CDC. Some websites also suggest transplant patients get rid of their pets since the risk of infection is much higher with pets in the house. Again, the only pets I come into contact with are my sister’s dogs and they’re pretty healthy and clean.
I just called into a Zoom meeting from CareDx. The topic was Life after Transplant and there were nephrologists from several local transplant centers, including Cedars Sinai and UC Irvine. I was only half listening because my tax guy wanted me to send in documents for 2020 taxes so I was busy finding and sending PDF files on another computer.
At the beginning of the call, the moderator had patient callers text a hello message. One person said their transplant was over 30 years ago. That is awesome. I was thinking that I would be back on dialysis in about 15 years but it appears that transplanted kidneys can last much longer. 30 years would be great because something else would probably kill me by then.
It has been almost 15 years since my divorce. However, it really does not feel like it has been that long. I am guessing that it is because my ex-wife keeps showing up in my dreams. When I wake up from a dream episode, it takes a few moments to distinguish between the dream and reality. That is probably why the divorce seems so recent, when I have not had contact with her for over 12 or 13 years. I tried to talk to a therapist about this but we did not get anywhere before the therapist went on maternity leave.
My ex-wife got remarried quite a few years ago. She probably does not think of me at all.
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Another recurring dream is taking a final exam but not having attended any classes for the entire semester/quarter. I have this dream almost monthly, and it is always a social science class like history. Maybe that is why school does not seem that long ago either, even though it has been over 25 years since my last college degree.
I have been on a Running Man binge lately, downloading and watching episodes. Last night, I came across episode 388, which had Goo Hara as a guest. Unfortunately, she committed suicide in November 2019. I remember this very clearly since it was the first weekend after my discharge from heart bypass surgery. I was a big KARA fan and had seen them in concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 2010.
Anyway, clicking on links in YouTube, I found an upload of a Instagram live that Hara recorded right before she committed suicide. Sadly, it was a video message to Sulli, another K-Pop idol from the group f(x) that had also committed suicide six weeks earlier. Reading through online articles, it seemed both were victims of online bullying, with Hara also physically abused by her ex-boyfriend. He also threatened Hara with releasing sex videos taken without her consent.
I am not sure why I posted this. It was very sad to watch the Running Man episode. In hindsight, the introduction interview with Hara was super cringey when they talked about her prior comment about marriage. Even though I listen to a lot of K-Pop, it is a brutal industry, especially for girl groups. Also in Korea, similar to other East Asian countries, mental health is not really considered, and those that seek counseling or therapy are considered mentally weak. Very sad.
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Post heart surgery, I had to switch back to hemodialysis. The first few weeks were very tough since I could not really walk, and had to use a wheelchair to go from the parking lot to the clinic. I also felt terrible, with chest pains and anxiety. I even got sent to the ER during dialysis due to a likely panic attack. However, I had a lot of support, even if most of it was online from text messages and email. I did not have strangers cyberbullying me or experience physical abuse. Even then, I had moments where I though about giving up, and just stop going to dialysis. Now that I am in a much better place, I can see how depression can mess with your perception of reality, and how hard it is to overcome it on your own. I do not understand why people are so toxic online. Is it the anonymity? Are those people like that in real life, face-to-face interactions?
My church small group is meeting in-person this week. They are going to meet outdoors at Tustin Marketplace and getting take-out food. The last time we did this, I got Panda Express. Chinese food is always an option.
When I was discharged from the hospital, they said to stay away from group of people. However, that was when I was on the initial dose of anti-rejection medications. Those meds have been greatly reduced since then, and my white blood cell count is in the normal range, though I am not 100% sure what that means. I sent a message to UCLA asking them if and when I can meet non-family members, but they decided to punt the discussion to the next appointment. Since that is next Monday, I guess I am staying home this week. I also asked them about food restrictions and whether I can return to work earlier.
Looking at Google Timeline, for February 2021, there are only five dots on the map: home, sister’s house, UCLA (Medical Plaza and Tiverton House), Albertsons, and Chase Bank (to deposit those insurance checks). For March so far, the list is: home, sister’s house, UCLA (Medical Plaza and Tiverton House), UCLA Lab (Laguna Hills), and Albertsons. Pretty depressing.
Since signing up for Spotify Premium, I have been checking out recommended artists for each song I add to my K-Pop playlist. I recently “found” this artist named Jiselle. She only has three or four singles out, but I really like this song. I think Spotify is grouping her into the Korean R&B sub-genre and there are a lot of cool stuff there.
She is under the label Million Market, which I believe is part of SM Entertainment. They are probably the largest K-Pop management company, and was not affected by the Spotify-Kakao M spat recently.
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Ooh, new song released yesterday:
Weird. 1theK is part of Kakao M. You would think SM can distribute the song on their own network.
In the previous post, I mentioned that Coca-Cola Zero Sugar (Coke Zero) has more potassium than Diet Coke. Since I was running out of Coke Zero, I went to Albertsons and picked up some Diet Coke (3 cases of 12/12 oz. cans for $9.99 + CRV). I was hoping they had other flavors but all they had was the “regular” Diet Coke. Anyway, here is the nutritional label from Diet Coke’s website:
At first glance, the two labels looks nearly identical. However, Coke Zero added a line for potassium content. There is not too much at 60 mg or 2% of DV, but I drank a lot of it last week. Maybe that has to do with the uptick in my potassium test results? Also, both have some caffeine but not as much as a cup of coffee (12 oz. contains ~150 mg). I probably should start drinking Caffeine Free Diet Coke instead.
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Coke Zero also contains potassium citrate, which appears to be a food preservative. It also contains acesulfame potassium, which is a sweetener. Both of these are not found in the ingredient list for Diet Coke. Interestingly, both beverages contain aspartame, a common sweetener. So it appears that Diet Coke only uses one sweetener, while Coke Zero uses two different sweeteners.
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Now I am wondering why Diet Coke does not contain a food preservative. There is a date at the bottom of the can. This particular can says MAY1021, which probably means May 10, 2021. I need to check if the Coke Zero can has a date, and if it is further out due to the food preservative.
Life with chronic diseases 