Getting COVID Vaccine: Addendum 2, the digital vaccination records

Just a few days ago, California started offering digital vaccination records so people don't have to carry their vax cards (which are easily faked) for various COVID reasons, like "vaccinated only" events. 

So I decided to get mine. 

Except I entered my name, exactly as written on my card... and I can't. It doesn't come up. No record. Hmmm... I even tried a variation of spelling on my first name, nope. 

So I called up the troubleshooting line... Except the agent can't really offer any useful info either. She said please check with your provider or whoever gave you the shot. 

So I did that... 

And realized that provider used yet ANOTHER variation of my name. 

You see, my name is very unique... It's transliterated from my original Chinese name. However, it is technically TWO WORDS. However, due to differences in records, the English version may or may not have a space in between the two characters. To California, I have no space between the two characters. To the Feds, I do have a space between the two. But both characters TOGETHER make up my first name. I have no middle-name. 

And it appears that my vaccine provider was one of the places that took the first character in my first name, and used that as my first name, and took the second character as my middle name.  

Just to give an analogy... there's a guy named Jean-Pierre Chabon, "JP" to his friends. His ID may have 

• JEAN-PIERRE CHABON
• JEANPIERRE CHABON
• JEAN PIERRE CHABON
• JEAN CHABON

Well, that last example was what happened to me at my vaccine provider. :)  

I figured that out, entered my "short" first name into the system, and I was able to get the record. 

Beef Noodle Soup Delivered to Your Door? How COVID is Rewriting Food Rules

An article on kqed led me to a kitchen named mumu's. They only have two products... Beef Noodle Soup, and beef tendon noodle soup. What's different is these are Taiwanese style.

And I must admit I hadn't tasted something like that in a decade. Maybe more.

So I order 4 servings... 2 regular, 2 tendon. It's 50 with free delivery.

What I didn't expect was it was delivered within hours. The bags still frosty and the soup pack still one solid block of ice.

So I decided to make one. I opened the regular beef one, and and I found one pack of uncooked noodles, one pack of beef, frozen, and one pack of soup, frozen.

To do a bit of shortcut, I put noodles in my favorite bowl (dollar tree square bowl), add enough hot water to cover, and microwaved it for 3 minutes.

In a separate pot, I dropped in the beef and soup. Basically melted the soup ice back into soup and heat up the beef again. Only took a few minutes. It could be done in the microwave, maybe next time.

The noodle by this time is done. I drained the water. Then put the noodles into the soup, which by this time is warm, and the edges are boiling.

So I turn off the heat and put the pot lid on. And waited another 3 minutes. Then poured all contents into the favorite bowl (the same one I boiled the noodles in).

And it is a good bowl of beef Noodle Soup. The price of 12.50 is a bit expensive, but considering the rarity of Taiwanese beef Noodle Soup, price seems reasonable.

I like it. Maybe once a month. 

A Review of "Without Remorse" (TV-2021) on Amazon Prime

I watched Without Remorse the day it came out. 

I am disappointed. 

This version is not bad. It's just... Not Clancy. 

Clancy stuff have intrigue, spy games, negotiations, tense without explosions, but not giant selfish conspiracies (unless you count the villains in Rainbow Six, and even then, he believes he's doing it to save humanity) 

This... does not. 

(From here on it's all spoiler, folks.)

(You)

(Have)

(Been)

(Warned)

Without having read Without Remorse, you would probably see the Amazon movie as an "okay" revenge tale, where he found the real culprit at a somewhat unexpected place, but still got his vengeance. 

But the book was NOTHING like it. 

Basically, the screenwriter took the name, and little else (that I really noticed). 

Book TL;DR -- John Kelly lost his pregnant wife to a car accident. In desperate loneliness, he picked up hitchhiker Pam, who's running away from a drug lord and pimp who's using his girls to run drugs by forcing them to be addicts first. John fell for Pam, but in a bout of stupid, he was almost killed and Pam was kidnaped, tortured, and killed by the drug lord, then the body left in the park. John recovered, and swore vengeance on the drug lord by disguising himself as a wino, and carefully observed drug distribution network and pimp network, and started killing dealers one level at a time to find his way to the drug lord, and the police were wondering who's offing dealers and pimps in the city. But it was then CIA needed Kelly on a VERY special mission... They have proof that an MIA B-52 pilot was still alive, and they want him to do a recon because he had previously escaped from the area. So Kelly reluctantly went to Vietnam. He wasn't able to rescue the guy, but he was able to nab the Russian interrogator (pure accident). Kelly's CIA boss (Greer) extracted a promise from the Russians: the guy will be returned uninterrogated if the Russians would transfer the POW to be with all the other prisoners in the "Hanoi Hilton". Russians agreed. Greer wanted to recruit Kelly, then Kelly told Greer he was offing dealers and he needs to finish his job. Greer gave him a little time, as the CIA is not involved. So Kelly found the bad guys, killed everybody including the corrupt cop, then pulled a disappearing act, faking his death, to become Mister Clark. 

Movie TL;DR -- John Kelly, Navy SEAL, is on a mission in Syrian raiding what they were told, was a comms depot. It turns out to be an arms depot manned by Russians. They barely got away, losing one of his own. Kelly is spending some time with his wife Pam, 9 months pregnant. An assassination squad gunned down Kelly's team in the US, almost killed Kelly, and killed his wife and unborn daughter. Kelly thirsted for vengeance and ambushed the Russian liaison in public view, but he got a name: Rykov. Kelly was temporarily imprisoned but was extracted, apparently by SecDef Clay's orders, to form a special team to go after Rykov in Murmansk, Russia. On their way, the plane was shot down by Russian fighters, but they managed to escape, infiltrate Murmansk, only to find out this is a setup to leave American soldiers dead on Russian soil... Surrounded by hostile snipers and Russian police and military, Kelly decided to pull his Alamo so his team can get away. At first, he's going T2, causing plenty of explosions but no casualties, but as soon as he got flanked after his team had gotten away, he went into deathmatch mode and gunned down every guy he saw, then pulled a Leon the Professional disappearing act. He snuck back into the US, kidnapped Clay, forced a confession out of him, then drowned him. Ritter, with the taped confession from Clay, was able to secretly negotiate with Russia to deescalate and get promoted to head of CIA, and Kelly became Mister Clark. 

As you can see, apart from the names, there's almost NO commonality among the two plots, except maybe the wino bit, and "I must avenge her" thing. 

Honestly, I have no problem if they need to modernize the stuff, but this has VERY little to do with "Without Remorse". It's more "inspired by" instead of "based on". 

This is practically fan fiction where you rewrote your heroes into your own situations. 

It's "competent", but little else. It pays VERY LITTLE homage to the original material, and that... is its biggest sin. 

Getting COVID Vaccine: Addendum

Got a free COVID test courtesy of the new job. Negative... of course. 

Apparently, they want us tested twice a week... for as long as they deem necessary. If they're paying for it and paying for my time doing them, that's good for me. 

Getting COVID vaccine: it ain't so easy part V

A bit of a surprise but a different provider just opened a a ton of slots... So I am down at the mass immunization site... And just got my first jab.

#sutterhealth #covidvaccine #Pfizer #sanfrancisco 

Getting COVID Vaccine: It Ain't So Easy Part IV

Oh, f*** me. 

I know there is a new job orientation this week. I didn't realize they scheduled it to start BEFORE my COVID vaccine appointment. And I can't be at two places at once. 

Unfortunately, I do need a job more than I need a vaccine, at least in the VERY immediate future. Guess I have to check elsewhere for more vaccines. 

ARGH!!!!! Back on the vaccine hunt. 

Getting the COVID Vaccine: It Ain't So Easy Part III

I FINALLY got a COVID first shot appointment... In a week (end of April). 

That is a full week AFTER California opened up the requirements to just about every adult, but some San Francisco sites are still doing zipcode restrictions. Apparently, it depends on the mood of the screeners. If there is not a line, they MAY let you in even without the right zipcode, at least according to Redditors. But there are some pretty hard*** ones that won't let you in without the right zipcode. 

I found the time slot because I was watching the /r/sanfrancisco reddit, NOT because the MyTurn website notified me.