a very special 30th anniversary...

The weekend marked the 30th anniversary of two wonderful people in my life: Mom and Dad!

Because this was a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, I figured we had to do something special. One thing that's been on my mind is where to take my parents. But my mother had a different idea: she didn't want me to spend too much on a meal and opted for a hot pot dinner at home. I obliged as this was her day after all.

Mom found some high-quality seafood at an Asian supermarket and made an amazing hot pot dinner on Saturday. She used nothing but the best ingredients, all of which were delicious. However, due to the time required to prepare the meal, my family didn't do much in the evening other than go for a stroll around the neighborhood.

Yesterday was also fun as we went hiking near Woodside. It was almost noon when we were done, after which we headed to Half Moon Bay to grab a bite. I treated my parents to lunch at Sushi Main Street as Dad wanted some Japanese food. Yum!

The three of us visited five antique stores on the way home as Mom wanted to shop for fine china. The evening was uneventful as we were all tired, although I watched an episode each of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Batman: The Animated Series on the new Amazon Fire TV before going to bed.

This was overall an awesome weekend. Here's to congratulating my parents on 30 happy years of marriage and hopefully many more to come!

Currently watching: Star Trek: The Next Generation - "The Ensigns of Command"

level 99 Woodcutting in RuneScape

I finally reached 99 Woodcutting in RuneScape after being semi-retired for several years. It was definitely long overdue. Here is a screenshot of me leveling up!

Because I haven't played the game much since 2009 due to real life, this was my first major achievement in ages. The biggest challenges were the limited training spots in F2P and competition with bots. Though level 99 stats aren't such a big deal anymore, I'm proud to say this was 100% legitimate. :-)

Currently playing: RuneScape

a belated Mother's Day celebration

Mother's Day was uneventful. I was busy familiarizing myself with Android Studio because the Fire TV team at Lab126 is migrating from Eclipse. Mom felt my job duties were more important than going out to eat and suggested staying home.

On the other hand, my parents invited the Tangs, Lius and our family friend Lily over for lunch on the 17th. Considering that I didn't get to treat my parents to a Mother's Day meal, I did my best to help Mom prepare the food. She had already done most of the cooking while I was at work and didn't need much help, but it's the thought that counts. :-)

At any rate, you can view my pictures from the gathering here. It was hard to follow the conversation as everyone else was much older than me - like at least twice my age. However, the nice thing is that Eileen gave me a box of Pralibel chocolates. I can't wait to try them as they look damn good. Thanks, Eileen!

Yesterday was relatively uneventful due to the hot weather, although we went for an evening stroll around the neighborhood. I also played a bit of RuneScape in my free time. Speaking of which, I'm really close to 99 woodcutting and should get there in a few days. W00t!

Currently listening to: "Pompeii" by Bastille

new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9"

Our new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" just arrived. Dad bought it a few days ago in order to read e-books. With 64 GB of storage, this Kindle is more than just an e-reader.

The tablet will be useful for the rest of us as well. An actual Android device will allow me to quickly test my code instead of having to wait several minutes for an emulator to initialize. It also means Mom and I no longer have to fight over the iPad 2 all the time. At least I hope that's the case!

In other news...

I recently passed 50,000 edits on the English Wikipedia. Though I don't have time to edit Wikipedia much anymore, this is a pretty big milestone.

sometimes I miss the '80s...

Last week saw the release of the Amazon Fire TV streaming media player. Of course, no product launch is complete without some sort of celebration. To that end, Lab126 had a launch party at Firehouse Grill & Brewery in Sunnyvale this afternoon.

The project founders were such big fans of Ferris Bueller's Day Off that the Fire TV was code named Bueller. It only made sense that we used it to play the movie on the restaurant's projector screen. The events team also set up additional devices for gaming and retro music. The '80s theme was a nice touch.

There was also tons of food, including a cake made to look like Ferris Bueller's famous Corvette. It was an amazing event for sure. I'm sure you want to see the pictures, so here they are. :-)

Currently watching: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

check out the Amazon Fire TV!

"Ladies and gentlemen, the dawn of a new era has arrived." -- me

Back when I joined the Lab126 team, I was told that I'd be working on a secret project related to the Amazon Kindle. Two years later, our product has finally been released!

The thing we've been working on is the Amazon Fire TV streaming media player. It features high-speed streaming video, voice search, an app store, parental controls and lots of other neat stuff. The device costs only $99 and comes with a free month of Amazon Prime. The Fire TV is pretty awesome for sure. Or at least it should be, considering that I worked on it for two years. :-)

Because the launch began at 11 a.m. in New York City - or 8 a.m. on the West Coast - we had to arrive at the office early to see it live. The feed disconnected a few times due to the bandwidth, but things otherwise went without a hitch. It certainly feels great to be part of the team that made this possible. So yeah, you should order an Amazon Fire TV if you don't already have one. :D

Currently listening to: "Burn" by Ellie Goulding

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this post are solely my own. I do not represent Amazon in any official capacity.

Chinese New Year party report

"The party van is here!" -- me, on Joseph's arrival

Saturday was uneventful as I was busy studying computer graphics. However, today was nice as we went to Carmel for a Chinese New Year celebration. You may recall that our family friend Joseph organized a class reunion at Chiuyen's house last year. That was so much fun that they decided to do it again!

The Taos also took the opportunity to invite their neighbors and colleagues. Everyone brought lots of food for the potluck lunch. The meatballs and the deviled eggs were my favorites. There were so many dishes that I didn't get to try all of them.

Joseph's daughter Claire was caught up with schoolwork and couldn't come. On the other hand, Yuan and Fang had several friends over. I was the only twenty-something and felt a little out of place, but we still found some common ground.

The kids and I played Sorry! after lunch. I hadn't touched that game in over 10 years but was able to quickly get up to speed with the rules. Let's just say things got very heated. However, the game wasn't even over when most people had to go home. The parents ruin all the fun. ^_^

Super Bowl XLVIII started shortly afterwards. That probably explains why everyone was in such a hurry to leave. Though it would have been fun to watch the game at Chiuyen's house, the Taos weren't really into sports. I reckon most families didn't want to overstay their welcome anyway as the gathering was supposed to end at 2:30 p.m. On the whole, this reunion was even better than the 2013 one. Feel free to check out the pictures.

Some of us considered taking a stroll around the neighborhood afterwards as we did last year, but this wasn't an option either due to the heavy rain. That left some free time, during which my family stopped at three antique stores on our way home. Mom found some nice china at each of the stores. This brought back memories of our recent trip to Reno.

Dad and I then watched the rest of the Super Bowl. I rooted for the Denver Broncos because the San Francisco 49ers had lost the NFC Championship Game. They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. However, the Broncos were no match against the Seattle Seahawks either. The final score ended up being 43-8 in favor of Seattle. Blah.

Currently playing: Epic Battle Fantasy 4