After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out. -- Warren Buffet, Chairman's Letter in the Berkshire Hathaway's 2001 Annual ReportWhen I first entered the job market 10 years ago, back in 2010, it felt like the beginning of spring. Hope was appearing in what was the depths of the financial recession. It was tough finding a job; it took me 5 months. I still remember, at the time, all the companies wanted experienced people. While I was confident of my skills, it was...
Written on November 7, 2020
A distant wind wraps itself around me And it doesn't let me reach you I try to arrange the words in my mind But you're gazing elsewhere through the window To someplace far away I have a premonition that never changes It lingers on All the days since then have been filled with clouds The changing of the seasons May have erased the promise that we made Even when I reach out with both my hands Our hearts remain apart The changing of the seasons Have already taken the one I love from me When I look back...
Written on September 11, 2020
Pretty significant milestone here: it's been ten years since I started working. Ten years ago, I felt sort of worthless, bumming at home, working on my website. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Then, I started working, and going to grad school at the same time. It's hard to imagine that ten years later, I would be here. It's been relatively smooth sailing, with only 2 months of joblessness, from when I went from being a summer intern to not having a job. But, it was a nice little break,...
Written on June 1, 2020
Boredom does make one creative. These past few months, I've been cooking and painting. Then, I started looking into making YouTube videos. Since then, I've been making videos during my spare time.Almost 15 years ago, back when I was in college, I took it upon myself to fix our family laptop, which my brother had broken years prior. It was a Toshiba Portege 3110CT, which at the time my dad was considering buying, I was against, but had grown fond of since then. It was incredibly thin and light, and...
Written on May 27, 2020
The first rule to remember is that, for everyone who has made it big in the stock market, there's probably dozens or hundreds of others who lost a lot of money in the stock market. There is potential to make a lot of money in the stock market, but there is much more likelihood to lose money. There are things to always remember, in order to not make regretful decisions.Unlike the Youtube ads or videos, I do not presume nor profess to have everything figured out. As is the experience of many young...
Written on March 27, 2020
This past month has seen some unprecedented events. The coronavirus (i.e. COVID-19, SARS-COVID-2, CCP virus) has spread throughout the world. The US has all but shut down, initially with restaurants switching to to-go ordering only, then all non-essential businesses being closed, and most recently, not being allowed to go outside except for groceries or supplies. Those who can work from home are working from home. Those who can't have either been laid off or furloughed. This is a storm that nobody...
Written on March 25, 2020
Time sure flew by. It was 10 years ago plus 10 days (February 6, 2010) when I first brought my website online. The internet was a different place, back then. Wordpress was all the rage. Facebook and Twitter were cool. As for web development, jQuery was the king of the hill, having defeated Dojo and other JS libraries. (Twitter) Bootstrap was still new. HTML5 and CSS3 hadn't arrived yet. Neither had Typescript or Coffeescript. Responsive design wasn't yet in the spotlight. IE still dominated...
Written on February 16, 2020
It's been in the back of my mind for a few years now: it seems software development has prioritized developers' experience over user experience. I read an article recently that echoed this sentiment. It is mis-titled as "Putting devs before users: how frameworks destroyed web performance", because it notes that frameworks are being blamed for prevalent poor website performance, when it is only the scapegoat, and the real cause lies in the attitudes and mindsets of the developers and those whom...
Written on January 16, 2020
An instant noodles lover but want something a bit healthier? Coming soon to a Korean supermarket near you: Shin Light.From the same makers who brought you the standard Shin Ramen, the ramen that, for me, had been the workhorse, the backbone of my ramen stockpile, the default option, the go to, the first ramen where one package was enough, comes a new entry.This one was gifted to me by a friend, who just so happened to have been interviewing with Nong Shin for a marketing position. As he left their...
Written on January 11, 2020
First time in a serious relationship and it's lasted one whole year.
Written on January 9, 2020
So what happened in 2019? Many things. It was an eventful year. I got dumped. The girl I had been meeting up with decided that she didn't love me enough to become my official girlfriend. She was a great girl with a proper character, and I wished the best for her. As I was never a possessive person, I agreed to split, and we did so on friendly terms, agreeing to stay friends. I got my first real girlfriend. That was a real learning experience. Expenditures shot up, though I learned by the end of...
Written on January 2, 2020
Paraguay, famous for being one of the poorest countries in South America, was not one of those places I was dying to visit. However, there are things that are so bad they become interesting. Including the fact that there was a full-time training center there, and it was on the bucket list of places I would like to go to, if given the opportunity, though I wasn't actively trying to go there.
Earlier this year, my friend contacted me asking me to accompany her,...
Written on December 20, 2019
Recently, it seems that people of my generation are starting to experience the infamous midlife crisis. From friends to YouTubers, it seems that this affliction affects people indiscriminately, regardless of level of success or stage in life. People a few years older than me down to people my age seem to be collectively unhappy with their lives and/or the direction they are headed. This hasn't hit me yet, and it remains to be seen whether I'm just not there yet, or whether I have a mindset that...
Updated on November 11, 2019
Today is the seventh month anniversary of my relationship. If we were still together...I never thought of myself as a person who can't keep a relationship going, but I haven't had many romantic experiences.Yesterday was the Chinese Valentine's Day, and I spent it with my ex blocked. I hope this will convey the message clearly. After-sales service, I suppose. The best thing I can do for her is to help her move on. This is also the best thing I can do for myself.Today, incidentally, also happens...
Written on August 8, 2019
For more than a year now, I've been adding functionality to a new revision of my website. It started from just the presentation, but now I've been working on the editor for making posts. Both the first and the second versions of my website had used the editor from the Dojo Toolkit, which has served me well, except for a few small issues. But, its age is definitely showing, and is now in a group of editors commonly referred to as "legacy" editors. However, in my search for a replacements, I discovered...
Written on July 5, 2019
It's been 9 years since I started working full-time. The day I started working was memorable because it was the day after Memorial Day. At the time, I was young and lost. I knew the direction I wanted to go in because I had just been derailed from the path I was previously going on. I was at a crossroads, with the choice of either trying to get back onto the path I was previously going on, of being a full-time serving one, bringing Jesus to people, to go back to school to study, or to commit...
Written on May 28, 2019
Last year didn't turn out the way I expected, despite meeting most of the goals I had set for myself. This year will be quieter. I need to refocus and realign my life. A turn of direction. Repentance, if you will. Less extravagance, more saving. Less getting to know new people, more developing existing relationships. Less outward exploration, more inward improvement. And, hopefully, by the 10th year since my graduation from the FTTA, I will have gotten 80% done with reading the Life-Studies,...
Written on January 2, 2019
Disclaimer: I will be explaining the whole series, so there will be spoilers.
Perhaps one of the most misunderstood series, Neon Genesis Evangelion has been the subject for many liberal and imaginative interpretations. In addition, due to the public's general confusion and outrage at the latter episodes, the creator has been forced to rewrite the series with subsequent movies. This is my third time watching the series. Either I got smarter or more mature (or more crazy), but everything made...
Written on December 15, 2018
This is an age-old question that I've been asked before, typically by people who wanted to gauge my level of expertise as a programmer. For me, what was telling, was that even though I didn't know the answer, when I asked them what the answer was, I never got a clear answer from them neither. This morning, as I was laying in bed, unable to sleep, I decided to get up, and search once again, for the answer. The last time I asked Google about this, years ago, I did not get a satisfactory answer. ...
Written on December 3, 2018
Over the past couple of weeks, I've had some extra free time. I think I did a good job putting that time to use by redoing the Finance section of my website, tweaking and extending its capabilities. Specifically, I retroactively went back and added all the businesses that I had spent money with. It's revealed some interesting trends. First, a graph of my spending:
I think it's interesting that aside from the general picture of my spending increasing over time, I see a...
Written on December 2, 2018