February 3rd, 2025 (11 minutes ago) • 1 minute

One of my fear of being abroad is losing that friendship and connection with friends from high school. We share so many shared memories and experiences that being with them felt like home.

Every once in a while, I call my friend and we talk for hours. We talk about everything and anything. Me updating him on what I did, them updating me on what happened to them + other friends.

I feel appreciative that I have friends that I can call and talk to even when I'm abroad. They keep me realistic and help me see things from a different perspective. They give me the condidence to try things and even if I fail, I know that they will be there to support me.

Thanks for being there for me.

I hope you have friends like that too.

❤️

January 30th, 2025 (4 days ago) • 2 minutes

Unfortunately, it's a work day today so I couldn't sleep in. I woke up at 7am and got ready for work.

The sky is unusually cloudy today. It must be because of all the fireworks last night.

Work was pretty chill today, we are mainly polishing up the app for the upcoming release, and to help C with his event later in the evening.

We had lunch at Dragon Beaux, a dim sum restaurant in the city. The dim sum is so delicious albeit it's on the pricier side. The siu mai are XL sized with prawn, scallops, mushrooms in them. It's not usual siu mai from the roadside. The pork ribs are also very tender. Overall, it's a very good experience!

At 6pm, we released the second version of the webapp, with more UX improvements and bug fixes. The last time we did this was Dec 31st's NYE. So maybe New Years are good days for releases?

Later in the night, I called my family because they were doing some visitation to my relatives' houses. I saw some of my cousins and wished them the usual '恭喜发财'，'身体健康'，'青春美丽'，'步步高升' and others.

p.s. It was after the meal that I realized we are not supposed to order porridge today. See here to know why.

January 29th, 2025 (5 days ago) • 3 minutes

It's CNY eve and it's my first time spending it away from family.

I feel a little sad because this is the time I most look forward to every year. I love the atmosphere, where cousins come together and gossip, the food, the shouting and laughter when we play a game of blackjack, the red packets, the fireworks, and the list goes on. Oh also, being able to talk to my uncles and aunts about their lives and their experiences. And of course, angpowes! 😆

Not forgetting the reunion dinner where it's a custom that our family orders a Lok Lok truck and we eat till we drop. We are quite a big family so it's usually finished in no time. It's a truck filled with different type of skewers and we either dip them in boiling soup hotpot style or deep fry them. It's so good!

This year, I spent it with my closest friends, A and B. We had a simple dinner at Yee's restaurant where we had our first dinner when we came to the city. The ngau-nam is still as good as ever. So one thing that happened here was that I accidentally tipped the waiter 6 cents instead of 6 dollars. The machine didn't read the decimal point. I was so embarrassed when I realized it. The waiter then came over and asked me if I made a mistake and I was like "Oh no, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that." I quickly took out some cash from my bag and put it on the table. Sorry Mr. Yee!

food from YEE's

Good food, better company.

Throughout our time eating, the sky was just filled with explosions left, right, and center. It was worse than Malaysia because these fireworks are very low and loud. I felt like I was in the middle of World War 3.

Then after that, we went to an event meetup but Adrian's registration wasn't approved so we couldn't all go up. I gave him an egg tart and we went back to his apartment to watch a movie and to countdown to the new year.

We watched 'God of Gamblers' and it was so funny. I like the part where they set up a trap to catch the Indian guy with dogs just because he was blocking their way. This movie is such a CNY classic.

all time famous chow yun fatt movie

10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.. Happy New Year!

Where's the explosion? Oh wait, it's just a few fireworks. We came to a conclusion that the majority of the fireworks were at 9-10pm and Chinatown is filled with old people who had already gone to bed.

Went back around 1.30am and I was so tired. It's a work day tomorrow, I need to sleep now.

Good night and Happy New Year! 🧧🎉🎊

January 28th, 2025 (6 days ago) • 2 minutes

bing is pretty good

Finished the prospectus for the hackathon I am hosting. And I am pretty happy with the result for the time I spent. I am not a great designer or anything but I hope the content tells a story.

Claude helped a lot in refining my drafts. OpenAI and Bing for building the logo. I used ChatGPT to come up with prompts e.g "Write 5 best prompts for a dragon logo, simple and minimalistic, focus on modern design with traditional aspects". Then for each prompt, I paste it into Bing to generate images. To my surprise, Bing is quite tasteful in its selection.

From there, I used Canva to add text, edit, shape the logo etc. Finally, export as a PNG and upload it.

No need to pay for any tooling or use one of the many logo generators that's stuck behind a paywall.

p.s If you are willing to sponsor, reach out to me!

January 26th, 2025 (8 days ago) • 1 minute

Some days when I sleep early, I also wake up earlier at 5am.

I don't know why, but I feel like I have less energy when I wake up at 5am compared to when I wake up at 7am. I needed an additional 30 - 40 minutes to ramp up my energy levels before I can start focusing.

Then, energy usually slumps after lunch, so I take a nap. But my naps are 1 hour long haha! Power naps are supposed to be 20 minutes long, but I tried and this only works if I'm really really tired.

I went to Costco today and I am surprised a 2-3 weeks' grocery is ~110 dollars. But it's just 8 items 🥲.

Why are groceries so expensive!

I got some Char Siew from Costco. I was surprised they have it all vacuum packed and you just need to heat it up. I was planning to make it myself, but I guess I can try this first.

January 25th, 2025 (9 days ago) • 2 minutes

view from the boat

friends

we saw a coyote in the wild

fan like tree

Went on a hike today at Angel Island and we did the Perimeter Trail. It was a 5.5 mile hike and it took us about 2.5 hours to complete.

It didn't start off well because the ferry was an hour late, so we just stood in the cold wind at the port for an hour. But once we got to the island, it was all good. The weather was perfect for a hike and the views were amazing. I was surprised that this is only a 30-minute ferry ride from the city.

The hike wasn't really steep, it was mainly flat ground with some ups and downs. We were taking pictures and chatting along the way, and also playing silly games like 'What words end with -ball?'.

L bought a lot of snacks and cherry tomatoes for the hike. I think she's the most prepared one out of all of us. I only brought a bottle of water and a pack of trail mix.

M and H are fun people. They are always laughing and making jokes. I think they are the life of the party. I'm glad I met them. The funny thing is I met H (I have his contact) before this at another party, but we forgot who each other was. It's funny how we tried to figure out how we met and what we talked about.

I didn't really talk to N a lot today, but I think she would be an interesting person to talk to because she had a lot of fun stories to share.

Legs are sore now, but it was a good day. I like these hikes.

January 24th, 2025 (10 days ago) • 2 minutes

Statquest's Joshua Stammer came to the school for a seminar today. It's so surreal to see someone that you've watched on YouTube during the whole of your undergrad in person.

He did all the things you expected him to do ie silly songs on the ukelele, BAMs, and the like. I also didn't know he was a professional cello player before he started Statquest. That's pretty cool. The reason he learned to play the cello was because his older brother picked the largest instrument for him to play.

I got Chipotle after that, but I was quite sad because the portion I got is so much lesser this time. I felt it because the bowl was lighter than usual. Is there a trick to getting your money's worth at Chipotle?

My friend shared me this trick where you ask for half and half and usually get more than 1 portion of the ingredient. I'll try that next time.

Also I didn't know you can technically get a free guacamole if you sign up for an account with a new email every time. I don't do that though because I don't really like avocados 🥑.

Emporium Arcade Bar SF

Hung out with A later that night and we went to celebrate one of our classmate's birthday at an arcade bar. There's no entrance fee and you can play all the games with tokens. We played a lot of snookers, basketball, cornhole, air hockey, mario karts and then ended it with a game of foosball.

I'm not good at any of the games, but I really like arcades. It feels like childhood again, where I would have the chance to go to the arcade if my parents brings us to the mall. I would then be at the arcade while they shop around. I remember my favorite game was the one where you can race another person in a car and also the game where you play the drums.

January 24th, 2025 (10 days ago) • 1 minute

If I'm living alone, I would like to have a a dog as a companion.

And if I get to choose, it will be either a Shar-pei (because they look like a huge teddy bear) or a Golden Retriever. Mainly because they are calm and they are at a size which you can hug with your whole body.

p.s Is it just me or dog sizes in SF are either huge or tiny? It's never in between.

January 23rd, 2025 (11 days ago) • 1 minute

It feels so much different when you end the day with something.

Recently, I started a part time job with InkLink. It had been a fun journey so far - developing features, iterating, building, then reiterating, doing experiments and so on.

Since this is a practicum attach to my graduate program, I only work on Mondays and Wednesdays since those are the days that I have no classes. It's only 2 days yes, but because of that I also have to keep the team updated on progress and not block any dev work while I'm not in. That means finishing the feature I'm building or putting enough documentation so my teammate can continue on.

That's why, everyday, I try to leave with something done, an accomplishment, no matter how small or how big. This also applies to any days outside of work. It gives me a sense that today is not wasted.

During the night, while writing this blog, I think to myself, what did I get done today? Am I satisfied? What could be better?

January 22nd, 2025 (12 days ago) • 2 minutes

How much money do I need to comfortably have the CHOICE to retire?

In the long run, I know I still want to go back and live in Malaysia since that's home to me. Family, friends, and people are there. Career-wise, it may not be the best, but it's still doable. Since I'm in the US, I want to work hard here and then move back with 1 USD = 4.5 MYR. Maybe stay in the same job or do some freelance work.

Money is a sensitive topic. So where else to seek advice than Reddit?

Taking into account the factor of inflation and future life with a partner (and 2 kids), let's say that amount will be MYR10 to MYR14 million or $2,245,930 to $3,144,302.

• MYR2 to 3 million per person
• 20% additional buffer for risk management
• Assumption: comfortable life, not lavish, favoring usability over flashy things
• Assumption: have to be able to support your family so they can live without financial limitations, i.e., not having to say no to the best school because they had no scholarships

Using the 4% rule and the midpoint MYR12 million, that will give me about MYR480k annually or MYR40k monthly (which is very much more than enough). Of course, if the stock market downturns for a few years in a row, then we might need to revise the withdrawal or consider other avenues such as T-bills or the government's Employees' Provident Fund, which guarantees a minimum (in this case for Malaysia, it's 2.5%, free to be withdrawn after 60 years old).

So MYR12 million == USD2.7 million. How?

ChatGPT suggested some ranges here. Phew, it's aggressive, and it's assuming I am an A* FAANG engineer.

Hmm, this led me to think that I should reconsider some choices I make now and optimize some of them.