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.

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 an hour.

I’d like to share a story about how my dad wound up at 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 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 day. He thought he would eventually work in the day but he never did, though he did have better days off - on Fri and Sat.

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 thousand. 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.

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. :-)

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*