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 is in pristine condition. 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
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Thursday, October 10, 2024
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
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
Sunday, September 8, 2024
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
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
Friday, May 24, 2024
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
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
Sunday, May 12, 2024
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
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
Friday, April 5, 2024
completed my AI certificate from Berkeley
I'm thrilled to share that I've completed the Professional Certificate in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence from UC Berkeley Executive Education. You may recall that I started the program last summer. It's been a challenging six months, but I can safely say I gained a lot from this course. Of note is that I also got a perfect score on all the assignments. :-)
But I must admit — online school can be a bit lonely at times. It's definitely not the same as being in high school or college. Even though we have office hours and Slack channels, there are only so many options when you can't meet face-to-face. The last day just seemed so anticlimactic. In other words, no walking across the stage to collect my certificate, meeting fellow students and their families, or a fancy farewell dinner.
I understand that the knowledge I gained from this course is more important than anything else, but it kind of sucks that you can't truly connect with your peers. However, the good news is several AI-related groups that are local to me have appeared on Meetup. I've been pitching them in Slack and the office hours. Hopefully I can attract interest from fellow Bay Area learners.
In other news...
I didn't feel like making a separate post about this, but I obtained the Guildmaster qualification with the Archaeology Guild in RuneScape two days ago. Completing this achievement allows you to buy all the permanent rewards from the Archaeology Guild Shop. In particular, the master archaeologist's outfit comes with several useful abilities. I'm sure this will make the grind to 120 Archaeology a bit easier. :D
Currently listening to: "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce
But I must admit — online school can be a bit lonely at times. It's definitely not the same as being in high school or college. Even though we have office hours and Slack channels, there are only so many options when you can't meet face-to-face. The last day just seemed so anticlimactic. In other words, no walking across the stage to collect my certificate, meeting fellow students and their families, or a fancy farewell dinner.
I understand that the knowledge I gained from this course is more important than anything else, but it kind of sucks that you can't truly connect with your peers. However, the good news is several AI-related groups that are local to me have appeared on Meetup. I've been pitching them in Slack and the office hours. Hopefully I can attract interest from fellow Bay Area learners.
In other news...
I didn't feel like making a separate post about this, but I obtained the Guildmaster qualification with the Archaeology Guild in RuneScape two days ago. Completing this achievement allows you to buy all the permanent rewards from the Archaeology Guild Shop. In particular, the master archaeologist's outfit comes with several useful abilities. I'm sure this will make the grind to 120 Archaeology a bit easier. :D
Currently listening to: "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce
Thursday, March 28, 2024
level 120 Farming in RuneScape
I just reached level 120 Farming in RuneScape today. This is actually my first level 120 skill ever!
It's worth mentioning that getting a skill to level 120 requires about eight times as much XP as level 99. However, the grind wasn't too bad because RS3 has pretty good XP rates. It also helps that I got a lot of experience rewards from the daily challenges and Treasure Hunter keys alone. I definitely can't imagine getting a 120 on an Ironman. :P
I'm also reasonably close to level 120 Dungeoneering and Slayer, and hope to reach them in the not-too-distance future. Can't wait to get that master Slayer cape!
Currently listening to: "Garden Song" by John Denver
It's worth mentioning that getting a skill to level 120 requires about eight times as much XP as level 99. However, the grind wasn't too bad because RS3 has pretty good XP rates. It also helps that I got a lot of experience rewards from the daily challenges and Treasure Hunter keys alone. I definitely can't imagine getting a 120 on an Ironman. :P
I'm also reasonably close to level 120 Dungeoneering and Slayer, and hope to reach them in the not-too-distance future. Can't wait to get that master Slayer cape!
Currently listening to: "Garden Song" by John Denver
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