level 120 Invention in RuneScape

I just reached level 120 Invention in RuneScape on my main character. It's one of the last 120's I needed to meet the skill requirements for the completionist cape!

Jagex increased the Thieving level cap to 120 in a recent update, so there are now still have two more 120's to go. However, the good news is that Thieving and Necromancy both give high XP rates at higher levels. I definitely hope to get 120 in those skills this year. :-)

In other news...

It turns out I did quite well at UC Santa I received an "A" in ECE 238 and ECE 256 and also passed the comprehensive exams for both classes. Hard work has its rewards, that's for sure!

Currently listening to: "Tennessee Waltz" by Patti Page

level 120 Archaeology in RuneScape

I just reached level 120 Archaeology in RuneScape and now only have two more 120's go!

Archaeology is an interesting skill as it is both profitable and also ties into the lore. It's easily one of the best-designed skills in the game. However, the downside is some items some items needed to complete certain achievements are dependent on luck and take a very long time to drop. For example, I've spent hours at the praetorium and still don't have all the pages needed for the Shadow Fall and Decimation mysteries. I won't lie — this can be quite frustrating at times.

However, the grind can be worthwhile because I've already earned a lot of chronotes. I'm really looking forward to completing the other dig sites after this. But someone please tell Jagex to add bad luck migitation to the journal pages. :-)

Currently listening to: "The Blueberry Shuffle" by Douglas Wood

bits and pieces

Just some personal updates I want to share. I didn't feel like making a separate post for each of those events, so here they are:

Level 120 Herblore in RuneScape

I'll start by saying I got level 120 Herblore in RuneScape on the 4th. I now only have three more 120's left before I have all the skill levels needed for the completionist cape. Jagex does plan to increase the other skills to 120 in the future, but that is expected to take several years.

I'm planning to get 120 Archaeology next as I have less than one million XP to go. However, that will have to wait because the membership on this account expires in like an hour or so. It'll probably be a while before I resubscribe as I'm going to be busy preparing for graduate school in the next one or two months.

A literal trip down the memory lane

Dad decided to take us to Sanborn County Park on the 7th as we realized we had never been there in all the years we've lived in the Bay Area. Even though we didn't stay here for long as it was a bit hot outside, this was nice for a change. It's always fun to explore new places. However, one highlight of this day trip is it brought back childhood memories.

For one, our route took us through the area in Cupertino where my late maternal grandparents used to live. Mom and I would always stop by their house after my horseback riding lessons on Saturdays, and I'd spend the afternoon watching cartoons. I certainly still miss my grandparents from time to time. It's hard to believe they've been gone for over 15 years.

I should mention our old family friends, the Liangs, lived fairly close to my grandparents in Cupertino. It's been a long time since our families have gotten together as we had gradually lost contact over the years. I don't think I've seen Stacey in person since 2010, and Emily since the year before. It's apparently quite common for adults to grow apart from childhood friends. :-(

Of note is Sanborn County Park is located close to Walden West and and Via West — the latter formerly known as Camp Costonoan. Walden West was very popular among my old classmates at Springer. I didn't attend Walden West but did go to Camp Costonoan in sixth grade. On the whole, this day definitely brought back some childhood memories.

A few shots

I mentioned a few times that I'll be taking courses at UC Santa Cruz later this year. Due to the university's immunization requirements, there were a few shots I needed to get before I could register for classes. I first got the updated COVID-19 vaccine on the 14th. The side effects didn't become apparent until the evening and lasted all of Sunday. However, everything was back to normal by the 16th.

The university also requires two doses of the MMR vaccine. We looked through all my medical records and could only find evidence of one dose, so I had to get the second dose on the 17th. It wasn't without side effects as my arm became pretty sore afterwards. However, that went away after a few hours. I still have to get two chickenpox shots — one for July and another in August — so hopefully those go without issues.

On a related note, I'll be moving to Santa Cruz in less than two weeks. It's both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time!

Currently listening to: "War" by Edwin Starr

level 99 Necromancy in RuneScape

Just a short post to share that I've reached level 99 Necromancy in RuneScape and can now enter the Max Guild again. Given the Necromancy skill just came out less than a year and a half ago, this was my fastest 99 to date. Of course, all that bonus XP from the recent Christmas event definitely helped. In any case, the free alteration glyph from the Necromancy cape is quite useful when it comes to rituals. :D

Currently listening to: Pachelbel's Canon

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

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

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

another certificate down :D

I'm thrilled to share that I've completed my certificate program in natural language processing from Carnegie Mellon University. Like the other programs, this one was entirely online. Of note is that this has been the most challenge course to date. However, natural language processing has many applications, and this was overall quite a worthwhile experience.

In other news...

I recently hit level 99 Hunter and also 2,700 skill total in RuneScape on my alternate account "ixfd64 rs2" during Double XP Live. As you can see, this has been a productive week for me.

Currently listening to: Old School RuneScape soundtrack – "Harmony" by Ian Taylor

a very busy Memorial Day

I had a great long weekend even though we stayed home the whole time. For those unaware, my family has a huge organic vegetable garden in our backyard. One great thing is that we had a very successful harvest of fava beans this year. But the downside is it takes a lot of effort to shell and peel the beans. I spent all three days helping Mom as she doesn't get much rest these days. We actually still have much work to do as there are several more plants in our garden. Otherwise, I can't really complain because fava beans are delicious!

However, the weekend wasn't all work and no play as I managed to get level 99 Slayer, Firemaking and Mining in RuneScape on my alt account Traductus. Because a lot of activities are "AFK-able" these days, I was able to make some gains while helping around the house. Of course, the Double XP Live event definitely helped. So yeah... this weekend was quite productive. :-)

In other news...

Dad's old thesis advisor Dr. Trick and his wife are visiting from Illinois in a few days, and we've invited over for dinner. I'm definitely excited to see them again.

Currently listening to: "The Best" by Tina Turner

a busy but awesome weekend

It had been a busy few days as we had to replace some water pipes that had been leaking for a while. We also had to repair a fence gate. I also had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for a work demo. However, the weekend wasn't too bad otherwise as we went to a party at my mom's friend Carol's house!

Several weeks ago, my dad noticed the water bill was much higher than normal. We did an inspection and found that some leaks in at least two pipes. I hate to think how much money and water was wasted as this had been going on for several months. However, our neighbor Bob was had kindly offered to help us with the repairs. We agreed to do this on Monday as Bob needed to get parts. In the meantime, my dad and I also repaired a gate to our backyard after it fell off its hinges.

The other thing is my BMW failed a smog check a while ago. We were told there was a problem with the oxygen sensor, and that the best way to reset it is to take the car on a drive of around 50 miles. Our plan was to go to WinCo Foods in Tracy on Sunday as that was about the right distance. But it just happened that Mom's friend Carol invited us to her house in Pleasanton for lunch. As you could imagine, the three of us were more than happy to oblige.

In any case, all the food was delicious. Everyone had such a great time that we stayed for several hours. I really enjoyed the party even though there was no one else my age. We had planned to still go to WinCo Foods afterwards. But the three of us decided to leave that to another time as it was a little late. I then had to work on a PowerPoint presentation for a demo scheduled for today at 10 a.m.

Bob came over this afternoon to help us replace the pipes. Even with his help, this was a huge job and took several hours. I was also quite busy today due to some work-related deadlines. However, the good news is I found some free time after dinner and managed to hit 2,600 skill total in RuneScape on my alt account Traductus. Didn't think that would happen so soon. :-)

Currently listening to: "Now We Are Free" by Lisa Gerrard

obligatory first post of 2023

Hope everyone had a great holiday break because mine was pretty awesome. :-)

Prelude

For starters, there was a nice holiday lunch at Energous on the Wednesday before Christmas. We had lots of great Mediterranean food. One cool thing is we had a raffle this year. You had to dress up or otherwise show "Christmas spirit" to be elegible. I wore a Christmas-themed sweater and knit cap, and ended up winning a $100 gift card for Amazon. So that was nice.

Shutdown week

The break had a good start as we watched the new Batman movie on the 23rd. It was somewhat darker than most other Batman films. I didn't like it much as Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight series, but it wasn't a bad movie by any means.

Mom invited my cousin Connie and her kids Dean and Desiree to our house for lunch on Christmas Eve. She gave them her old art supplies after finding out Desiree was into watercolors. She and Connie both love art and immediately started to paint after lunch. Everyone definitely had a great time. Connie had to leave soon afterwards, but it was so nice to see her again so soon.

One nice thing about Energous is we shut down during the holidays. I forgot about this and still went to the office. Imagine my surprise when I found no one there. Oops. On the bright side, I can't complain about having three "extra" days. :-)

Mom wanted to go to WinCo Foods for groceries as everything there is usually cheap. Dad took us to the store in Tracy as that is the closest one to our home. Due to the recent food crisis, the stuff at WinCo had also gone up in price. I can't say I'm too surprised. Otherwise, this was an enjoyable day trip as we hadn't gone too many places lately due to the pandemic.

We later saw Terminator: Dark Fate on Blu-ray Disc after dinner. It was defintely one of the better Terminator films. We didn't do much on the 29th but did get to see Eternals the next day. Despite the critical reviews, I don't think Eternals was that bad at all.

New Year's eve

Our original plan for New Year's Eve was to visit our family friend George in El Cerrito as we hadn't seen him in at least three years. However, he's very conscious about COVID-19 and prefers not to have visitors. We of course respected his wishes. I also hoped to check out some New Year's Eve events, but decided against it due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases.

Otherwise, things weren't too bad as we got to see Thor: Love and Thunder after dinner. I paused the movie about five minutes before 9 p.m. so we could watch the Times Square ball drop. We then continued the movie after the fireworks. I then played RuneScape and watched the countdown in San Francisco before going to bed. It's hard to believe 2022 was over.

I must admit I miss celebrating the New Year's Eve with friends. Our last New Year's Eve party — whether at our house or elsewhere — was eight years ago. Counting down the seconds in a chat room just isn't the same as doing it in person. :-(

A fresh start to 2023

New Year's Day started out with a nice morning hike. It's not often that we get such nice weather at this time. We later saw Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on Blu-ray Disc. I definitely loved the special effects. Continuing the multiverse theme, the three of us watched Everything Everywhere All at Once the next day. Although everyone says Everything Everywhere was better, I personally liked Multiverse of Madness more. But that's just me.

2022 in review

On the whole, this wasn't too bad of a year. For me, the highlight is we got to see my aunt Cynthia and cousin Connie several times. It was great to see Cathy and her husband Andrew as well. As you can imagine, these reunions were long overdue.

However, the worst thing about 2022 is the current economic situation. Dad and I bought a bunch of stocks, and most have dropped in value. Of course, the war in Ukraine doesn't help either. Can you believe we still don't have world peace?

Another consequence of the current crisis is the increase in food prices. For example, even a modest meal can cost up to $20 or more. It's expected that prices will continue to go up throughout this year. Let's hope this isn't the case. Even without the pandemic, this puts a damper on things.

But the New Year brings new opportunities. On that note, my goal for 2023 is to improve my time management skills. I also plan to get my first skill to level 120 in RuneScape this year. Hope it's not too ambitious. :P

January 9 update: Didn't feel like making a separate post about this, but I just hit level 99 Herblore in RuneScape on my alt account Traductus. :-)

Currently watching: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

level 99 Farming and 2,500 skill total in RuneScape on an alt

I hit level 99 Farming as well as 2,500 skill total RuneScape today on my alternate account Traductus. It's hard to believe I actually got a 99 on a second character. :D

I originally created this account around May 2001 as a mage pure for PvP. Although I made quite a few kills, the fun came to an end when Jagex nerfed magic. To be specific, players could no longer cast more than one spell a second. I therefore decided to quit PvP and use this account to experience the game as a "new" player again. As you can see, he is catching up to my main. :-)

Currently watching: The Lost City (2002)

level 99 Archaeology in RuneScape

I'm excited to share that I just reached 99 Archaeology just two years after the skill was released. You can go here to see me level up. It's not the best screenshot because I didn't realize the tooltip was in the way and obstructed the view of my stats. In any case, this one of my fastest 99's ever, especially considering that I've mostly had an on-and-off membership. I only have to get two Invention before I finally get the max cape after all those years. :-)

It should be noted that there is a lot of content associated with the Archaeology skill. Let's hope it doesn't take me too long to get level 120 and the Professor and Guildmaster qualifications!

Currently listening to: "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi

2,800 skill total in RuneScape

I just hit level 110 Herblore in RuneScape and am now at 2,800 skill total. This means I'm less than 100 levels away from the maximum total of 2,898 needed for the completionist cape. It's still a long road because level 120 skills require about eight times as much XP as level 99 skills. However, I'm hoping to max out my skills in a year or so. :-)

Currently listening to: New Super Mario Bros. U overworld theme

level 99 Summoning in RuneScape

I just reached 99 Summoning in RuneScape while grinding Yak Track tasks. Here is the picture. I now only have Archaeology and Invention to go before I can get the max cape!

Summoning is a slow skill at first because charms cannot be traded. However, the new goods is that it becomes much easier to obtain charms at higher levels. I actually have well over 30,000 charms left over. That's probably enough to get me to virtual level 110 or so. :D

Update: I just got the Summoning pet too. It feels like RNGesus is congratulating me on reaching this milestone.

Currently listening to: "Angel" by Aerosmith

three more 99's in RuneScape

It's been another productive double XP week in RuneScape as I just got level 99 in three more skills. :-)

I reached 99 Strength this morning and Defense and Ranged in the afternoon. The elite combat training dummies are certainly quite nice. Now I only need three more 99's before I get my max cape. :-)

Currently watching: Green Lantern: The Animated Series

level 99 Constitution and 138 combat in RuneScape

I just got level 99 Constitution and 138 combat in RuneScape after putting it off for a while. Here is a picture of me leveling up. Only three more skills to go until I max all combat skills!

Although thing have been tough due to the pandemic, the nice thing about staying home is that it gives me more time for games. I'm definitely hoping to get level 99 in all skills this year. :-)

Currently listening to: New Super Mario Bros. U – overworld theme

level 99 Magic in RuneScape

I just got level 99 Magic in RuneScape by killing a cursed energy bot in the Wilderness. Click here for the picture. Bots are a huge problem in the game, so it's always satisfying to kill those in PvP zones. It's too bad most of them aren't attackable. In any case, only seven more skills to go!

Currently listening to: "Flashes" by NIVIRO

an extended long weekend + level 99 Divination in RuneScape

To boost morale during the COVID-19 pandemic, my company recently gave employees an extra vacation day to be used by the end of June. Because the Memorial Day long weekend was just around the corner, our team agreed to take Friday off after deciding it be most convenient for everyone. It's certainly not often this happens!

Dad took us on a drive to Half Moon Bay on Friday after seeing we hadn't been anywhere in a long time. It was pretty fun even though we mostly just took pictures from the car. Otherwise, the weekend was uneventful as I've been doing extra work for my job. Even though a four-day weekend sounds nice, an extra day doesn't make a big difference when you're working from home.

I didn't feel like making two separate posts, but another thing I wanted to share is that I got level 99 Divination in RuneScape four days ago. People generally consider Divination to be among the slowest skills, but the recent double XP event and the protean memories certainly helped. Only eight more skill to go until I get my max cape!

Currently listening to: "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel

2,700 skill total in RuneScape

It's been two months since I started working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the workload is about the same, one nice thing about working from home is that I don't have to commute. Considering that it takes me around 50 minutes to get to the office, being able to save almost two hours makes a huge difference. It certainly gives me more time for hobbies.

I certainly wouldn't have 2,700 skill total in RuneScape so quickly otherwise. On a related note, I'm very close to level 99 Divination and should get there in a few days. Hopefully it won't be too long until I get my max cape. :-)

Currently listening to: "Under Pressure" by Queen