I’ve recently turned thirty-two years (32) old. As some of you may know, I’d write something on my birthday or relatively close to it. I’ve just gotten back from snowboarding in Lake Tahoe. Kirkwood resort, to be precise. It got some snow last week, which was why I went, and it was great! Kirkwood is known to have decent snow based on its location since it’s at the highest base, 7,800, and its summit is at 9,800 feet. So, I went up there and boarded all the way from top to the bottom. It was fun and I’d try to do little jumps off bumps, and switched on both stances—goofy and regular. It’s amazing to see how far I’ve learned in snowboarding and I am trying to do more jumps with bigger air. It just takes practice and commitment to improve upon yourself. This year, I am staying local as I am saving up money to go to Japan later this summer and climb/hike Mt. Fuji. It’s been a goal of mine and I want to do some extra traveling around in Japan. Also, my sister and her family just moved there, for her husband’s Christian services. I hope to be in a good shape by then and will be training for a marathon in SF before that. A good friend of mine, Jess Conboy, will join me in the race. It’ll be his 9th marathon and his life goal is to qualify for the Boston marathon someday, with a time of 3:05 or faster. This one will be only my second, ha. I plan to run in a few races before the marathon to help me get ready. :) So, I’m trying to stay active, do fitness things because I realize how much I spend sitting on my ass by the computers. Not kidding you.

I’ve been living in SF for over a year, well almost two years, and yes, I’m one of these Googlers who takes the shuttle bus down to Mountain View, as my commute. It’s pretty nice except traffic is godly horrible. So I try to read news or a book. Sometimes, I do some work in the bus but the constant bounce in the ride makes me dizzy, so I’d sit quiet and look outside, enjoy the daylight, and just think generally, and be ready to hit the keyboard once I get in the office. Speaking of working, I’d need to make some statistics of my work and use it for a summary report once annual performance hits. Google is still a great place to work, although I’ve been on the horizon for something different, something more personal, like giving service to the deaf people or help with their program funding. Last summer, I actually went to the NAD conference in Louisville, KY to give a workshop on the new Google products—Google Plus and Google Hangouts–and also showed third-party plugins that connects you to an interpreter from VRS and another in captioning. It was a cool experience and was nice to meet some familiar faces, as deaf community is small. Plus, I also contacted several people from Diversity team and asked for a grant. So, this is something I’d like to do more, getting more grants and help support deaf programs or organizations.

As I’m getting close to the halfway between 30 and 40, I’m starting to realize that I’m not as young as I used to be. I remember before, I’d be pretty careless about my age. Nonetheless, I’m becoming more conscious of my age, which does enable me to know more about myself and what I’d like to do. Getting into Google was great, moving to California was great, working abroad in Korea was awesome, now I’m back here in CA and in the heart of San Francisco. I’m trying to go out as much as I can because I know not too far ahead, I’d probably have met someone and likely will have a family. How that will be, I have no idea but I’m up to the challenges and experiences it may present.

-nathan

Today, I’ve gotten around the Sun 31 times. It’s a fun way to look at this way, as we’re all revolving the Sun. And who knows for how many more. What to say on my birthday? Well, I think it’s going to sound a little disappointing ’cause my thoughts are pretty much the same, more or less, of what I’ve said in my last few birthday posts. Although I must share that in the last few years, I felt like there was a cloud over my head, as I thought deeply about myself, then an opportunity opened up for me to work abroad in Korea for a year. That seems to make a big difference in myself, as I immersed myself into the ways of Korean culture and also had been interacting with Koreans, which I’ve realized to be a little different than the people in America. Koreans do have a strong sense of identity to themselves and quite proud of what they’ve accomplished thus far and the language, Hangul, is a big part of that. In fact, they’re the only country that has a national day devoted to the Hangul language. They dabble in the thousands of Hangul keys on their smartphones everyday. Aside from learning about the culture, the biggest benefit of being able to live in Korea for a year was simply getting know the area and whereabouts. It’s this subject that pops up often in conversations as Koreans may ask you where you were born, where are you from, where do you live, and where are you going to. South Korea is roughly the same size as Indiana is, so it’s much smaller than most people expect it to be. You’d need to have a good knowledge of the geography and whereabouts in Korea to have some meaningful conversations with Koreans. By now, I’m familiar with the geography and what do cities look like. I even snowboarded at four different ski resorts and went on KTX train to Busan to visit my sister and her family. Also, I’ve been reading into the history of modern Korea as I think it’s important to know where you come into the picture. Really great read is here. Pretty much what you need to know about its modern history. I read one book that explains how Korea was literally down to one city, Busan, and had the city been captured, it’d be all over for South Korea to have any hopes of having democracy in the government, so it was a big deal that General MacArthur had a brilliant idea of attacking the Communists from the port of Incheon. You can read all about it here.

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Now that I’ve turned thirty years old, it’s a significant milestone in my life, for sure. Much of that has been learning about myself, who I am, and what I like doing. I’ve come a long way from being born, adopted, then found my birth family in 2002, and now I’m living in Korea for a year.

For those who know me well, I enjoy thinking about philosophy and generally question things. There’s lots of good stuffs on the Internet and I like to think of things in terms of science and universe like what Carl Sagan usually shared. Although Earth is a big planet (maybe not so much with the world population rapidly growing), it’s really really tiny out in the universe alone and it makes us much smaller. I’ve realized that we’ve pretty much existed in our consciousness, taking part in the light. It’s weird that we can hear same sounds, see same things, yet be in different bodies. I guess it’s the mind that binds us and our souls residing in bodies. My line of thinking is similar to that of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche with the idea of existentialism. Kierkegaard maintained that the individual is solely responsible for giving his or her own life meaning and for living that life passionately and sincerely in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation, and boredom. Both of them also believed that one should define the nature of their own existence. It’s a similar notion to one quote I read—”Life isn’t about finding yourself it’s about creating yourself.” That’s what I believe in, and that’s mainly one reason why Facebook is so popular because it’s given us tools to share ourselves rather conveniently.

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So, I turn 29 years old today. It’s turned into a tradition that I’d write something on my birthday. Here’s the last five.

It’s hard to believe that I’d start a blog way back in the fall of 2004. More than five years have passed since. I haven’t been blogging much lately but have written a few notes on my Facebook, as pretty much everyone is using the Internet and I’m becoming more cautious of what I’m writing here as people seem to be nitpicking pretty much over anything. But I think I shouldn’t be concerned about that and just write for myself. So, I hope to be more forthcoming this year. :)

I seem to be accomplishing most of the goals that I listed last year, which was rather simple and that I want to take life at its face value, and ofc, keep contributing to my work at Google, which has been both productive and fulfilling, kept me busy for much of the time. Last year, I pondered about why we’re here and our purpose, leading my belief to the philosophy of existentialism. To extend that thought, I also thought about physics and realized that everything’s a reflection of light. Without light, we simply can’t see anything including ourselves. So, we’re in this visible light spectrum and since light is made of some electromagnetic properties (photons and quanta) that actually bend toward gravity (mass), that creates time and space. We’re all moving along on this timeline, and thanks to technology like the Internet and computers as a tool, we’re able to record events and express our thoughts through talking, videotaping, or writing. With those recorded media, we’re able to rewind and remember our timelines. All made possible by light.

I’m actually doing a lot of snowboarding (gone to Lake Tahoe and Colorado) and my skill has been improving steadily that I can do some air jumps and rotations. The highlight of 2009 was traveling to five different countries—Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong—and managed to meet a few deaf people along the way. We really do exist all over the world, though not as many as other group identities.

I believe in the next few years, we’ll be more connected than ever, thanks to social networking like Facebook and Twitter. With enough smart motivated minds, we will make some serious progress that will be unprecedented by any time in the past. Equal rights in marriage, better/more education, tools, networking, and transparency will lead to a better management of the economy. No one is going to fix the economy as if he has a magic wand but I think with enough information and assistance, we’ll better able to manage our money and take responsibility for ourselves and our actions.

My goals for this year is pretty much the same except I’d like to be more focused on a few certain things, to make efforts at, and bring my dreams closer to reality. Much of that will be improving my coding skill and outputting more like blogging and taking pictures. Shedding light on my timeline.

Finally, to close this birthday post, someone very important is turning 55 in two days. That’d be Steve Jobs. He was struggling with his health last year and got a liver transplant, and he’s said he’s feeling better. Great. This is written with a Macbook Pro. And iPad is just gonna rock. You just wait and see.

As is accustomed for me to write a self post on my birthday. See my last four:

Twenty-seven years old
Twenty-six years old
I turn 25 today.
The Existence of 24 years old on this Planet Earth.

I’m actually writing this post on Facebook’s notes. I’m not sure why but it’s probably the social vibe behind this app that is going on (with 175+ million users having signed up) and this awareness that I’m not the only one hitting on a keyboard. It’s almost like writing on a typewriter in a busy newsroom, only figuratively. I also really like the font typeface and its size – gotta send props to the designer who chose the font. I don’t even know what’s the font face – looks like Tahoma family to me, though.

To my amazement, I found out that I’m not the only one to do this type of post. Matt Mullenweg who created WordPress as a open source blogging software, also does the same thing – see his. He’s a Dvorak typist too. Not too long ago, I started to type pretty comfortable in Dvorak but had to stop because I sometimes needed to type on others’ keyboard to communicate with them and their layout is in QWERTY, so I would get stuck and have to remember how to type in QWERTY again. So, no good there.

Since I’m aware that my birthday is in Feb, I tend to wait and think back while people get busy bringing in the new year and making resolutions. And I started thinking about what I would like to say in my self post, so here this is.

It’s been more than a year since I moved here from Washington DC. It was an exciting time, thrilled to be working right in Googleplex, made a full transcontinental move to the west coast. And I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Wouldn’t replace for anything. It was hard to believe that I could be walking into a room and see the CEO or founders there. But now, I’ve gotten used to the sight and don’t get as excited as before. This year also has been a year of consciousness/awareness that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about who I am and how we all come into existence. Moreover, I think this year, more or less, marks the first time that I’ve come to terms with myself. I wasn’t always so proud of myself like being the only Asian in my class for most of my life and had some people making fun of my not-so-rounded eyes and my penchant in school. Before, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I was like, so this is an Asian-looking guy yet I don’t feel one bit like an Asian. Now, I don’t feel that way anymore and feel proud to be myself. I am who I am. I can’t imagine wanting to be someone else.

In terms of consciousness, I’ve tried to increase awareness in this capacity and how decisions we make may affect us. Sometimes, I do wonder if I even exist. The answer is yes and you do exist too. What you see is what you get. Activity on Facebook, pictures we appear in, comments we made, news we read. We know what the Golden Gate or Washington Monument looks like, we know how burgers from In n Out taste like, we know who is now the President of the U.S., and we know we can’t live without air and water. That’s existentialism. We exist, though how do we want to spend this present time is up to us.

As for my goals this year, well, not much, really. Just enjoy life and hang out with friends, also do fun stuffs like snowboarding, traveling, and seriously learn how to surf. The big thing will be the southeast Asia trip and Deaflympics. So, till then, take lots of pictures, blogging and being myself.

Lastly, I’d like to close this post by saying early happy birthday to Steve Jobs who will be turning 54 in two days and to wish him the best in his health. He was born an orphan here in Mountain View, CA. Cool.

The best is yet to come. :D

Out of all things what I can get for my dad’s birthday and his retirement, I think the best gift I can get for him is this, other than a plane ticket to surprise him at home.

My dad turns 57 years old today; we’re 30 years apart so that makes it easy to remember. This one is probably his best one ’cause he gets to retire! he worked for 31 years at the United States Postal Service. He was a mail handler and for the last five or six years, he worked the forklift. To be frank, I was a little depressed to hear what did he get out of this. All he got was a plaque that’s made of paper and a cake to go with it. That’s it. Not even an ounce of cheese, summer sausage, celery, carrot or a single cracker. Zilch. Just a cake for my dad. He had a clean record—no suspensions or late warnings—and had more than 500 sick hours to spare.

It was only two weeks ago that my team and I had a nice team outing. We went to this cool indoor go-kart racing where we put on racing uniforms and helmets, then had some pizza and soda for lunch. What a contrast. The speaker box blasted on after a half hour of celebration, telling everyone to go back to work. So, after working for more than thirty years for P.O, ensuring that every box goes to your door on time, my dad’s retirement party was over in less than a half hour.

I’d like to share a story about how my dad wound up at the P.O. He used to work as a printer, along with his good friend who was also deaf. They were good workers who do their jobs well and would know exactly if something went wrong. It could be as obvious as ink running out or as small as a nut getting loose. My dad would see that easily and go to fix it. keeping the whole facility equipment running, which kept the business going and ultimately, for managers to be happy.

For some time, I wonder why did my dad decide to make a jump to work at the P.O. I found out it was because of me. When it came to a time for my parents to have a child, they already knew they couldn’t have a child so they wanted to adopt. After they’ve found a child to adopt and that, of course, came with a cost. My dad knew they couldn’t afford the adoption, had he stayed at the printing so he applied and got the job. His math skill helped him out. He had to work on weekends, had Wed., and Thurs. off and worked overnight because it paid more than the daytime. He thought he would eventually work in the daytime but he never did, though he did have better days off – on Fri and Sat. and he was the last employee to have those such days off.

For the first year or two, my parents didn’t see each other much but that didn’t bother them, they had the same goal, which was to save up money to afford the adoption. At that time in 1984, the cost was eight grand (16k in today’s value). They were able to save 7 grand, one thousand short but when the agency found out that I was deaf, they slashed it by half, to four thousands. Ha, I’m a bargain child, so to speak.

With those said, I’m ecstatic to see my dad retired and I hope he’ll enjoy his retirement and do whatever he wants. Happy birthday and retirement, Dad. This is yours.

I turn 27 years old today.

Here’s my previous posts on the same day:

Twenty-six years old
The Existence of 24 years old on this Planet Earth.
I turn 25 today.

Like I said last year, I’m gonna write a post on my birthdays, it feels like giving a gift to myself because the ability to write is a gift itself. So, I have 3 years left to 30. Wow. Time’s flying by. A lot has happened since my last birthday. I moved coast to coast, from DC to California. Ha I don’t have a Subaru WRX anymore, now Honda Element where she and I shall go far. I’ve already slept overnight in it at Lake Tahoe; that was cool and fun. Gonna do more of that soon.

One big thing I’ve accomplished is that I have managed to maximize my 401k. That is $15,500 a year and company matching half of that so I am saving $23,250 a year plus interests and most importantly, zero debt. Well, I suppose that is another achievement too. Doubt I will become a homeowner because costs around here are ridiculously high and I’m constantly amazed at how people continue to find ways to buy houses at like 500k or higher. That’d be paying a loan forever.

Renting Makes More Financial Sense Than Homeownership

“What about the pride of home ownership?”

It’s not for me. I define ownership as no longer having to pay for something and being able to do as I please with it. I own my coffee maker. House owners must pay taxes each year even when their mortgage payments are done. In certain markets they can’t even make changes to the houses they’ve paid for without seeking the approval of others. Personally, I feel the pride of ownership for shares of businesses, and I’m proud to occupy a nice place while leaving the burden of poor returns and maintenance to someone else.

Unless I move to a state where a house can be bought 200k or under, I might reconsider. For now, nope. I am happy with where I am now, all of my basic needs are met and I’m having a time of my life. I’m gonna explore life, make friends and help others. I know I’ll be comfortable later in my life, with a house or not. Just a roof over my head is good enough. I share a nice well-maintained apartment with a great roommate who is Japanese and is fluent in four languages. Ofc, ASL is one of them. We met through Craigslist and turned out that we have some mutual friends. How small world.

This year, I’m gonna do a lot of activities. I plan to become a member at a golf course, play in tournaments and see where I stand at. I’m gonna do more of running, rockclimbing, snowboarding, traveling, learn how to surf, camping, hiking, working out, dancing, basketball, take more pictures, building websites/apps, watch more movies, and writing.

Tonight, I will have a bday party at Dave n Busters and it’s gonna be a lot of fun. :-) See you all there!

Hey everyone!

I’m gonna host a birthday party at Dave n Busters this Friday evening, February 22nd, 7 pm.

Not only does Dave n Busters have some good games, their foods are also good too!

One comment from someone named Debbie G.

Dave & Busters is good if you like arcade games. It’s supposed to be for families, but I haven’t seen many families there, mainly young adults. The food is so-so, typical bar food in my mind (fried zucchini, fried potatoes, fried onion rings, fried cheese, etc…. ). It is nice and roomy and doesn’t get super crowded. –Debbie G.

And guess what? there will be a bit of extra entertainment going on. Ian, JMD, and I will have an ASL War!!! We’ll be telling ASL stories and try to up each other. You won’t see this anywhere else in the world. I’m not joking. And ofc, free show! ;-)

All is WELCOME to come! just need to let me know so I can make a reservation. Thanks and hope to see you there! Spread the word!

Heh my dad is funny. One quarter and a penny. 26.

Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

I turn 26 years old today. Twenty-six.

So I have gotten on the shorter leg toward 30. 25 was a perfect middle number between 20 and 30. Now, 26. Four more years left before I reach thirty. There’s something about 30. It seems much more adult. I suppose it is because at 20, you couldn’t wait to turn 21 so you can drink legally without using fake ids. 40. Well that’s a number that looks old. Wow, time’s going too fast. I’ve been saying that quite often lately.

I’ve been running this blog for more than three years now and it’s become a tradition for me to blog a bit about my birthday. The first two:

The Existence of 24 years old on this Planet Earth.
I turn 25 today.

I’m going to do like this every year so I can look back and remember what I was like back then. Heh, last year, I said I was thinking about trading my car for an S2000. Well, I didn’t quite get an S2000 but I did get myself a new car. A 2005 Subaru WRX with premium package. I decided that it’s more practical than an S2000 as it only has two seats and WRX has four doors, more practical that way and easier for my friends to get in whenever I need to haul them. Plus, it’s an AWD so it’s awesome in snow and has a turbo. I’m happy with my car. But I will become an S2000 owner in the future, probably when I turn 40.

*re-reading my birthday posts*

So, I have four years left before I reach 30. I’m still not ready to settle down and get married. I still feel as young as I have been. I’ve found a passion in snowboarding and will keep riding till 30, maybe 35. I’ll play more golf when the season isn’t winter and lower my handicap and will see if I’m good enough to compete in the Deaf National Golf tournament or earn a spot on a USA golf team. I’m going to read more about finance/investing and do my best to contribute more to my 401k account till it gets maximized at 15k. Meanwhile, I’ll be saving money till I have enough to secure a mortgage loan, then buy a condo. Hopefully I’ll be a homeowner before I turn 30. That’s my financial goal. I will keep in a shape; been playing with the thought of running in a marathon. I’ll take a more responsible role to look after my parents and keep in close touch with my family. They’re all what I have and I’m all what they have.

What about my birthday wishes? nothing. I wish for everyone to be in a good health and be happy. :-)

What I learned today is that a bonsai is not a plant, it’s a tree.

After realizing that someone special is having a birthday in three days—August 31st, I better do something quick before it’s all too late and a potential long night.

One of the important things to remember about buying a gift for someone’s birthday is the amount of recognition it can ignite. If you could buy a gift that costs a few dollars but it attracts a lot of attention and bring people to say “oh, I didn’t know today is your birthday! Happy Birthday!”. The gift becomes priceless almost instantly—no matter how little you paid for it. On the other hand, if you bought a gift that costs like a grand and it brings zero people to say happy birthday, well, the gift won’t be more than it is.

So, I decided I’d send her flowers at her internship in New Jersey with Kraft Foods Co. Surely, someone would see the flowers and say happy birthday to her. That’s what I’m talking about, the recognition.

Knowing that Google not only ranks websites based on their revelance but also their popularity, I simply typed “flowers” into the search and I would probably only bother to check out the top five sites. Interestingly, I knew FTD is a well-known flower delivery service but is ranked at #4; however, it does have an ad box out on top. Clearly, it has paid for that top ad placement. The first one to come out is 1800flowers.com. So I clicked on it and I can immediately see why it has the top rank. Clear, visible layout with a nice color scheme to match the “flowery” feeling. After browsing around, the pictures of flowers are nicely taken but I found the prices to be a tad high. So I put that website on hold and check out the top second website, virtualflowers.com. It has a simpler, less bold looking layout and the prices are a little lower.

I was initially planning to send her flowers but the images of flowers or roses came back to remind me that it wasn’t my first time getting her flowers and that all of them have withered, dried, and then died. I do recall that one time she said “maybe you should have gotten me a plant. I’d love to take care of it.” Bingo, time for me to get her a plant.

So, which plant? I looked at the plants and found nothing that seems to suit her taste and lifestyle. Most of them would look like a good choice for someone who’s in a hospital. Like if that person has a terminal disease and it wouldn’t be a good idea to send that person flowers ‘cuz they probably would die before s/he did.

I thought of what she’d like and what would be suitable for her office cubicle. Bingo, I know what kind of plant to get her. It’s a bonsai. So I quickly looked around and found some. Oops, it’s not a plant. It’s a tree! A bonsai tree. I quickly read about its history on the wikipedia to be a little more educated than I was ten seconds ago. I knew she would love it. She likes miniaturized, simple stuffs and a bonsai tree certainly falls into that category or at least I think so.

With this tree, she should have a soothing time looking at it and perhaps take a few minutes to cut a few shrubs from the little tree. I should know that ‘cuz she likes to cut my nails—both fingernails and toenails.

I started the checkout process and whew, if I order it tomorrow, it’s going to cost me 20 extra dollars to ship the tree. Instead, it’s 10 dollars. Fine with me. Now, if you’re still reading this, remember the recognition I mentioned earlier in this post? I feel that this tree alone is not going to garner a lot of attention so I decided to add a happy birthday balloon to it so that it can hover above the walls of cubicle world. It costs 5 dollars and hopefully more than 5 people will come to say happy birthday to her. :-)

Just so you know, Bonsai is a tree, not a plant.

Wow, I’ve been living here for 25 years. It seems only yesterday that I made this post, then somehow, Time fast-forwarded one year later and I’m 25 today. Yikes.

Ever since I was in elementary school, I knew I had the same birthday with George Washington, the first President of the US, so I was curious who else has the same birthday.

Michael Chang – famous tennis player
Drew Barrymore – actress
Vijay Singh – #2 world rank golfer
Julius “Dr. J” Erving – probably the only NBA player with a Phd
Robert Baden-Powell – founder of Boy Scouts
Steve Irwin – Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet channel

I believe Chelsea Clinton’s birthday is tmw too. So I share the same birthday with cool people. :-) Ofc, Michael Jordan and Abraham Lincoln (my fave president, Bill Clinton is second) were also born in this month.

I remember when I was growing up, I was worried whether my birthday was authentic or not because I was adopted and I know some adopted friends whose birthdays were guessed. So that means I could be one year older, or one year younger till I found my family in Korea and one of the first questions I had was my birthday. They told me that it was the right one so I was relieved to know that my birthday is accurate and authentic. I even found out what exact time I was born, at 3 o’clock afternoon. It’s also nice to know that we all are two years apart—my sister’s 29, my bro’s 27.

Now, I’m thinking about trading my car for an S2000.

*drooools*

Today, I turned 24 years old. 24, just like the Fox show, 24. If you’re Chinese or an avid lover of Chinese astrology, you know I’m a Rooster. That’s something I learned today that you can easily figure out somebody’s age by just asking them what’s their Chinese horoscope. Unlike horoscopes which are monthly-based, it’s based on a year and Chinese has twelve different animals, so there are 12 years. (Duh!) Unless you’re really lousy at guessing people’s age, you have up to 12 years as a margin of error. So, if you were to guess my age, I can be 36, 24, or 12. I don’t think I look that young at 12 nor old at 36, so I’m 24. I dare you to ask someone and ask her or him if they know what’s their Chinese astrology and you shall have their age. :-) (so rude, I know.)

I remember someone who got so distraught after she turned forty years old. It kinda surprised me that she would get upset. Did she just wake up in her bed and say “Oh my god, I’m 40 today!!”. She oughta know that it’s coming, no matter what, and she’s gonna break out in tears when her birthday came? Well, she should know that she’s getting older not by every 40 years but every second. We all are getting older by this sound of tick-tock, tick-tock. What are you gonna do about it? Let each second passes? No, I don’t think so and we all should make every second counts. Life’s a game and you only get one chance.