Recommended Inoculations

On a visit to the allergist last month she asked whether I had a flu shot yet.
No, I'm having a physical in January and I'll get one then.
That's great, she said. Meanwhile, you might want to ask him about these others. She brandished a report by the CDC:

Vaccines Recommended for Older Adults

Influenza vaccine, which protects against seasonal flu (for all adults every year)

Td vaccine, which protects against tetanus (for all adults every 10 years)

Tdap vaccine, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (also known as whooping cough) (for all adults once instead of Td vaccine)

Pneumococcal vaccine, which protects against pneumococcal diseases that cause infections in the lungs, blood, brain and ear (for all adults over 65 years old, and for adults younger than 65 years who have certain chronic health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, or who smoke)

Zoster vaccine, which protects against shingles (for adults 60 years or older)

There may be other vaccines to consider because your health, job, or lifestyle may put you at higher risk for certain diseases. For example, people with diabetes are recommended to also get the Hepatitis B vaccine.

I wish that I had been made aware of these recommendations in 2012, before I came down with the shingles that put me out of commission for over a month.

Any one of the other maladies will put a crimp in achieving ambitions for 2014. Recommended inoculations: another item on the to-do list for January. © 2014 Stephen Yuen

Merely a Gesture

A lot of sticky messiness for $9.73.

The holiday festivities were pau (some Hawaiian words just stick with you throughout your life). I took the plastic bottles to the recycling center. For a couple of hours' worth of sorting, transporting, waiting, and dealing with sticky messiness the compensation was $9.73. I probably won't bother next time and just put the bottles in the blue container that Recology picks up every week.

I felt sorry for the sole worker at the site. He had to deal with long post-New Year lines and overflowing bins; he told me that the truck was very late. I gave him $2. No, the amount made no difference to him or to me. Amidst the vermin-attracting grime it was merely a gesture toward civic society. © 2014 Stephen Yuen

Not Going With the Flow

The technician tapped my left arm, searching for a vein. She inserted the needle. It was a dry hole. Her second attempt on the right wrist was successful, and the sample vials were filled in short order. The visit was more pleasant than average, however, with three or four tries being the norm.

Lab technicians have explained the multiple pricks and prods (and bandages) as being due to my veins being narrow and difficult to locate. I'm a wuss for admitting it, but the unpleasantness of the experience has caused me recently to forego donating blood (5-10 years ago the technicians seemed more skilled).

It's unfortunate that the blood banks aren't integrated with the labs, because I'd be perfectly willing to donate a pint once they take the relatively small amount needed for testing. After I've made the trip to the laboratory, filled out the paperwork, and incurred the discomfort of getting the flow going, the marginal cost of extracting a pint is minimal. There's probably a bureaucratic reason why blood donation and testing can't be done at the same time, but it escapes me.

New Year's "W"-esolutions

Every year we try and only partially succeed, if not fail. This time we really mean it! (right?)

This 17-year-old didn't need
to lose any weight.

Weight loss: This is the number one New Year's resolution for Americans. I resolve to lose 1½ pounds per month---an 18-pound weight loss should get the doc off my back. Exercise and diet will be the means of achieving this goal.

Wealth: I resolve to pay more attention to investments. Buy-it-and-forget-it is not an option, and neither is too much concentration in one stock or one sector.

Work: This one seems to be related to wealth, but it's really not. Whether doing something for pay or for love, I resolve to accept tasks sparingly and finish the ones that I do undertake.

Wisdom: I resolve to take 80 hours of continuing education and restore my CPA license to active status. Also, I will read at least one non-business book each month. Excluding work and education, I will limit online time to two hours daily.

The above may not seem overly ambitious, dear reader, but rest assured, they are. © 2014 Stephen Yuen

A Pretty Good Year, Too

Major indices were up at least 20%. Meanwhile, Apple's price recovered from its summer bottom
to finish 2.18% higher by Dec. 31st. Including dividends, that was a return of 4.4%; really, not so bad.

By far the biggest factor behind income inequality is wealth inequality. A mega-rich mogul's billion dollars of stock holdings at the beginning of 2013 are very likely to have grown by at least $200 million (20%) by year-end, all without him or her spending an hour at the office.

On a much more common and achievable scale, it's entirely possible for a middle-class working couple to have accumulated one million dollars in investable funds by the time they are in their 50's through a program of regular saving. Here's one scenario among an infinite number: new annual savings start at $7,000 and increase by 3% per year to $16,496 in year 30; the total put away would be about $333,000. Meanwhile, if the couple earned 8% on their investments (the S&P 500 increased by an average of 10% per year from 1975 to 2013), the portfolio would have grown to $1,069,000.

The above is an extremely simplistic example, because we're not considering the negative effect of income taxes (although if the funds are stored in tax-deferred 401(k) or IRA accounts taxes are not a factor until funds are withdrawn), nor are we considering the positive effect of dividends. The point of the exercise is to show that getting to $1 million is doable, and so was enjoying at least a $200,000 increase in one's portfolio in 2013.

Billionaires are leaving everyone behind, but if they can put aside the sin of envy many will come to realize that they had a pretty good year, too. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

In Other Words, Kwitch'er Whining

WSJ tech columnist Farhad Manjoo has two words for tech observers who were disappointed about 2013: grow up.

the touchscreen smartphone (and its cousin the tablet) was a singularly novel, industry-shattering device, and we're unlikely to see anything as groundbreaking in a generation.

The smartphone and the tablet *are* the next big things, and we act like spoiled children when we claim that they somehow aren't enough. Most future advances will simply be improvements or expansions on these basic technologies...

When a sports team wins a couple of championships, some of its fans begin to expect that they will win one every year. The fans have forgotten or perhaps never even knew the amount of effort and expertise required just to perform competently, much less win it all. We often see such lack of perspective in critics who were never creators/doers themselves.

In the New Year may we strive to be more appreciative of the good in the world, rather than dwell upon its imperfections. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

For the Foreseeable Future

We served 100 people on Dec. 29th.

The first clue was the number of boxes that were stored in the walk-in freezer; they barely fit in my station wagon. (The good people of St. Pius closely monitor the need.) The second hint was the number of cars and bicycles in the crowded parking lot.

Over the years the number of customers for a free Sunday hot meal at the Redwood City community center has ranged between 50 and 80. Lately it's risen toward the high end of the scale. Today we counted 100. One of our volunteers ran out to buy more roast chicken, which she carved at the picnic table. I baked an extra tray of chicken and rice, while someone brought more salad. Everything was consumed, and all the brown-bag lunches prepared by St. Pius were snapped up.

The likely reason for the increased traffic to Sandwiches on Sunday is the recent cut in food stamp allotments. As one who strongly prefers private charity programs to the incredible waste, fraud, and abuse of government transfer programs, I'll have to put my money and time where my mouth is, and it's likely I'll be doing so for the foreseeable future. © 2013 Stephen Yuen