a quarter century into the millennium

One of my most vivid memories was counting down to the year 2000 at our family friend Carol's house. At the time, the biggest concern was that the Y2K problem would cause worldwide chaos. I remember switching on my Windows 95 laptop right after midnight to make sure it could still start up. It's hard to believe it's been 25 years. We are now actually closer to 2030 than 2020. How time flies.

A bittersweet holiday season

So the holidays were a bit of a bummer. We had invited my cousin Cathy and her husband Andrew over for lunch on the 29th and were really looking forward to seeing them for the first time in two years. However, the couple both got sick during the holidays, as did my cousin Connie and her kids. I've been told this flu season has been especially bad. I did get to catch up with Andrew and Cathy over FaceTime, although that's not quite the same as meeting in person.

But the holiday season had its highlights. One of my mom's friends in New Jersey sent us some high-quality candied cashews and mixed nuts. Mom did some research and found out those weren't cheap. Our neighbor Bob also gave us a box of See's Candies. We certainly appreciate all the love.

I also reached level 120 Dungeoneering in RuneScape on the 28th. I didn't actually have that much time for RuneScape as I was busy studying for cybersecurity certificates, but the XP rewards from the Christmas event definitely helped. Only four more 120's to go!

2024 in review

Some say 2024 was a tough year. For one, the economy hasn't really gotten better. Food prices are still increasing and are expected to continue to rise. It also doesn't help that there are major conflicts all over the world.

We also somehow managed to elect Donald Trump again. I tend to avoid political topics, but Trump has certainly done many questionable things during his first presidency. I'm not at all confident that things will be better this time around. It's probably going to be even worse based on what I read about Project 2025. :\

Of course, there have also been personal challenges. For me, the worst thing that happened is that I was rejected in October by a company I had greatly looked up to. I felt I aced the interview and was fairly confident I'd get the job. It's no secret that the job market is extremely competitive, but that stung for a while.

I was also looking forward to a few events that ultimately didn't pan out for one reason or another. As mentioned above, my cousin Cathy and her husband Andrew had planned to come over for lunch. But that didn't happen because they both got sick after catching the virus from my second cousin Desiree. I was also eagerly anticipating the 20-year LAHS class of 2004 reunion. However, that event never progressed beyond the planning stage. It seems people in my generation don't want to meet in person anymore.

Another unfortunate thing that happened is my MSI gaming laptop suddenly died after the PSU went bad and apparently fried the motherboard. I was not immediately able to recover my data because I didn't realize the laptop also had an SSD in addition to a hard drive. It turned out the SSD had survived the power surge. I didn't have to spend a few hundred dollars on a data recovery service, but having to re-install everything on my new laptop set me back several weeks. That was a stressful month for sure.

However, that is not to say 2024 didn't have its good moments. For me, the best part was getting to see the northern lights. It's nice to not have to travel all the way to Alaska or Iceland. I also got some very nice presents for my 39th birthday in October. That was certainly one of my best birthdays in ages!

On towards 2025

A common prediction is 2025 is going to be a bad year as well. It definitely seems like the case so far, especially given what happened this morning in New Orleans. We're also less than three weeks away from Trump's second term. But as John Connor famously said: the future has not been written. We can certainly do our best make 2025 as good of a year as possible.

I'm also going to try something a little different this year. Instead of making a New Year's resolution — which I know I'm going to fail — I've decided to share my predictions for 2025. Here's what I think will happen in the near future:

1. We will see an improvement in the U.S. job market
2. I will get the opportunity to catch up with childhood friends
3. Donald Trump will be removed from office. He has already been impeached twice, so maybe the third time's the charm
4. I am not going to win a million dollars from the lottery

I don't expect all or even any of those predictions to come true, but I am nevertheless excited to see what 2025 has to offier. :-)

Currently listening to: Pachelbel's Canon by Johann Pachelbel

a productive Thanksgiving break + two major RuneScape achievements

Just wanted I had a pretty good Thanksgiving long weekend.

For starters, my family had a nice party at our house. We invited our family friends Jeff and Sheila over as they had hosted our last get-together. Our family friend Joseph happened to be in town and wanted to visit us, so we were more than happy to have the Tsais join us. Joseph also brought his brother Jeremy over. We didn't get to see Joseph's daughter Claire as she is currently on a trip to Europe, but I'm sure there will be future opportunities to catch up.

Mom made lots of delicious food as she usually does, and Jeff and Sheila also brought some to share. We felt like Jeff and Sheila were the ones hosting the party because they brought so much stuff over. It's been a while since I ate this much at a party. I put on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny for Jeremy because he seemed a little bored. He told us he enjoyed the movie. On the whole, everyone defintely had a great time.

The three of us watched Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on Saturday. We also rewatched Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny as we were too busy chatting to pay attention to it during the party. Both were good movies, although we liked Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny a bit more.

I also reached level 120 Slayer in RuneScape last Tuesday and 3,000 skill total on Thursday. 120 Slayer didn't take that long thanks to all the efficient training methods these days, but it was still a grind for sure. I'm level 119 in three other skills and expect to reach 120 early next year. One step closer to the completionist cape. :D

This weekend wasn't all play and no work as I also completed the Google Cybersecurity Certificate on Coursera. The program consists of a series of eight courses offered by Google. It's targeted towards people with no cybersecurity experience, but I still learned a lot from the courses. As you can see, this weekend was quite productive!

I'll end this post by saying I'm very thankful that we have been able to live fairly comfortably despite the current economic situation. This is often not the case for many families. Even though the economy has been terrible for the past year or so, I am still hopeful for the future.

Currently watching: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

got a new Meade 4504 telescope!

As you may be aware, I turned 39 two days ago. We just had a nice lunch with our family friends Jeff and Sheila at their house, and they gave me a brand new Meade 4504 telescope. It's certainly one of the best birthday presents I've gotten to date!

I've always been interested in astronomy since I was a kid. Of note is I used to actually have my own telescope. However, the parts had rusted or gone missing altogether. I had actually been wanting to buy a replacement for a while, but haven't really found the time to shop for a new one. It also doesn't help that most telescopes are pretty expensive these days.

Even though the Meade 4504 was manufactured over 20 years ago, this particular unit has barely been used. Sheila's late husband had bought it for her as she was also interested in space. However, she says the telescope was too complex for her, and her husband got sick and passed away before he had the chance to help her set it up. Sheila figured I might like it and decided to give it to us. I'll do my best to carry on his legacy and put the telescope to good use.

Of note is that this telescope has a lot more features than my old one. I guess I need to find some to study the manual. :D

Currently listening to: "Telescope" by Dan Eriksson

a busy 39th birthday

So this is the final year of my thirties. It's hard to believe how fast time goes. I guess it won't be too long before I'm considered "old."

In any case, things were a little different this year. I didn't do much for my birthday as I had a job interview lasting a total of almost four hours. However, that's not a problem because we had an impromptu early birthday celebration with our family friends Jeff and Sheila in September. We had invited them over for lunch at our house, and Sheila said it felt we were celebrating someone's birthday because they had brought a nice cake from Satura Cakes. Mom replied that my birthday is in October and that we might as well celebrate. It's funny how things work out after all.

On a related note, we're having lunch again with Jeff and Sheila in two days. It's going to be at their house this time. I should mention that Jeff also makes really good food. Looks like Mom has competition. :-)

Another highlight is we got to see the northern lights again. Although the aurora wasn't as intense as last time, this was my mom's first time seeing it in person. At least we won't have to spend thousands on a trip to Alaska or Iceland.

On the whole, this was a nice birthday even though I didn't do much otherwise.

October 11 update: I just received a copy of the official RuneScape cookbook from my cousin Cathy and her husband Andrew. It's something I truly appreciate. All I need to do now is to grind level 99 Cooking in real life. Haha.

October 12 update: We had a great lunch at Jeff and Sheila's house. To my surprise, they decided to give me a brand new Meade 4504 telescope. I truly didn't expect to receive a present like this. See the next post for details!

Currently reading: RuneScape: The Official Cookbook by Jarrett Melendez and Sandra Rosner

another exciting block party

You may remember our street had a block party last summer. Because that was our first such event in 28 years, everyone was more than excited to get together. People had such a great time that Saeed — whose family helped organize the party — said he wanted to plan another similar event in the future.

Saeed apparently made good on his promise because we just had our second block party since 1995. It's hard to believe how fast a year goes. We saw some familiar faces, as well as a few other neighbors who we had not talked to before. Just like last time, people brought lots of good food. Our homemade oyakodon was especially popular.

But one thing I noticed is there were fewer people from younger generations this year. I think the biggest reason is that school has already started for the college-aged kids, especially if their school uses a semester-based schedule. However, some teenagers who did show up didn't stay long except to get food. It seems younger generations don't go out much these days.

Even though the novelty factor had worn off — and most people didn't stay quite as long — this event was still pretty enjoyable. I'm definitely looking forward to the one next year.

Currently listening to: Ultimate Doom soundtrack – "Nobody Told Me About id" by Bobby Prince

got a new Dell G16 gaming laptop

First some bad news: the MSI GL75 Leopard laptop that I got in 2020 went "kaput" all of a sudden two days ago. It suddenly shut down and will not turn on again. I also heard a popping sound before smelling some smoke. As you can imagine, this is not a good sign.

Based on what I found online, the most likely cause is a blown capacitor. But because computers are relatively cheap these days, my dad figured it would be better to get a new one as opposed to taking the MSI laptop to the repair shop. We settled on the Dell G16 because it both had great specs and wasn't too expensive.

To my surprise, the G16 showed up on my doorstep after just two days even though the ETA was three days. I just finished setting it up. The laptop has a Core i9-13900HX CPU, an RTX 4070 GPU and 16 GB of memory. One thing for sure is it'll be quite useful for my AI projects. I do have re-install everything and recover the files from my old laptop, which I'll probably do in the next few days. Crossing my fingers that the hard drive is still in good condition.

Another thing is that Windows 11 will take a while to get used to. Of course, this is a relatively small inconvenience. In any case, getting a new computer is always nice!

June 2 update: Some bad news. I'm not able to access the data on the hard drive. Even though there is no visible damage, the PCB was likely fried in the power surge. Looks like I'll have to send the drive to a data recovery service. Based on the information I found online, this will not be cheap.

June 18 update: I send the HDD to a data recovery company and was told the data was unrecoverable. However, the good news is data may actually be on the SSD. It turned out the laptop actually had two drives. Hope the SSD didn't get fried too.

June 22 update: Good news — the SSD was in working condition. I was able to grab all the data without issues. But as you can imagine, the past month or so has been stressful. Serves me right for not making backups. :\

Currently listening to: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by the Tokens

I saw the northern lights!

As you're probably aware, there were a series of solar storms over the past few days. Due to the intensity of these storms, the resulting aurora was visible in much lower latitudes — even as far south as Texas. It's not often this happens!

The cool thing is that I got to see the northern lights on Friday. I didn't actually see the aurora with my naked eye, but did catch a faint glow on my iPhone. You could see the unmistakable colors in the photos.

Mom and I tried to look for the aurora again last night after hearing the solar storms would continue into the weekend. The two of us stayed up pretty late last night but didn't see anything as there was a bit of a cloud cover. We had heard there was yet another chance to see the aurora tonight at around 10 p.m. However, there again wasn't much to see as the moonlight was too bright this time.

Even though I only saw the aurora once — on Friday evening — this was a neat experience. The next time this happens may be decades away. Seeing the northern lights was something that had been on my bucket list for a long time, and I'm glad I finally got the chance.

On a side note, happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. :-)

Currently listening to: Clair de lune by Claude Debussy