I’m tempted to write a mega annual thankful post but I think that’ll wait til closer to the new year. I still have another month left before the year ends and I think I’ll have much more to be thankful for in this month. I’ve already met some of the coolest people this year. And I also learned so much about myself and grew so much.

For this post… I guess I’ll just write about one thing specifically that I’m thankful for. And I guess… it’s technology and how I’m living in the future. Shiet… I’m an old man now. I’m like.. the old man that talks to kids about back in the day blah blah blah. I’ve recently been playing Starcraft 2 - Legacy of the Void on my Macbook Pro. And it’s… so amazingly fun. And nostalgic. Tempted to post some spoilers… I guess I’ll just say that seeing one of my favorite characters die… was sad.

But back in the day… I remember when I was a young kid who knew nothing about computers or programming. I remember having a P4 2.4 ghz PC with 768 Megs of RAM. I felt like such a badass for having so much ram back in the day. It was 512+256. I mean… how many people even have 256 back in the day not to mention two sticks of different sizes. I remember wanted to learn how to do thing from the windows terminal because the dos window looked so cool. Real men use the command line - I guess I stumbeld upon that at a young age before I even knew what command line really was.

It’s crazy. Now… my laptop has 16 gigs of ram. My phone has 2 gigs of ram. And my phone is a dual core. It’s so crazy that… looking back… I was imagining the future… and now that I’m in the future. There’s no way that past me could’ve predicted the future. I mean… that’s why whenever employers ask where you think you’ll be in 5 years or 10 years… I think that the question is bullshit. Because… so much changes in like 2 years. I don’t think I could’ve predicted where I’d be at two years ago… it’s like. Too far out and crazy.

Anyways. I guess for this post… I’m just thankful for the crazy technology progress in computer hardware and technology in general. My cell phone is faster than the computer that I use to play Starcraft on. And it’s resolution is higher than the 1024x768 monitor I had back in the day. And my cellular data is faster than the cable internet back in the day of 1M. Crazy right.

tl;dr - I’m thankful for the advances in technology and how my phone is more powerful than the machine I use to play Starcraft on

Hmmm. So it’s officially Black Friday 2015. I’ve been looking forward to today for like… the longest time. It’s the time that I get to buy all the shiny toys that I’ve wanted. I actually just finished meditating. The reason is… I’ve accumulated so much stuff in my short stay in the States. I’ve been living in San Francisco for 3 years now… soon to be my 4th year. And at this point I own so much crap. As soon as it was Friday… I started refreshing slickdeals obcessively. It’s probably bad for me. And the thing is… I noticed the Sennheiser 598s for sale. It’s the special amazon edition that’s black that I don’t own. But I got the Sennheiser 598s last year for $99. I currently own 2(TWO!) pairs of Sennheiser 598s. One pair for home and one pair for work. And I still really really want to buy the Sennheiser 598s black. Just because they look different. The thing is… I’m also planning on buying the Sennheiser 650s. It’s just that… the deal seems so good. The quality of 598s for $99 is such a steal. Even though… I already own 2. And I have about 6 headphones. And I’m planning on getting the Sennheiser HD 650s this year. Blargh. I dunno why. I think that’s why I meditated. I’m still really tempted to get it.

I still want to get a pair. Even though the savings of $60 is like nothing to me. I mean… I spend more than $60 on what I consider random shit. Yet… for some reason - I think it’s like borderline addiction. It’s almost a shopping addiction at this point. The thing is… if I have a shopping addiction… I feel so bad for the regular people. I guess… that’s what compels people to actually leave their homes and line up in the cold for black friday sales. I think writing about it… made me want to buy the headphones less. I told myself that if I still wanted to buy the headphones after meditation and writing this blog post that I could just buy it. I think the monetary cost is secondary to me just having garbage at my place.

I’ve also been wanting to get a new laptop even though my current one is fully functional. My laptop is a sandy bridge i3 with 16gb of rams. It dual boots El Capitan and KaOS. So it has both linux and mac running perfectly on it. And… I don’t need anything that requires more horsepower. I just want a new laptop for no reason. I’m sitting in my house… surrounded by 2 laptops, 1 desktop, 3 monitors and a TV. Visitors just look at my setup and go whoa. 6 monitors. I mean… I have so much stuff.. and yet I still want more crap for some reason. I guess it’s suffice to say that I’ve been americanized.

Now… I guess I’ll write about some of the stuff I’ll plan on buying. So the aforementioned Sennheiser HD 598s are a steal. So if they are still in stock I”ll probably pick up a pair as a gift for my dad. I also saw the Nexus 6 for $199 and the Xperia M4 aqua for $199. Both devices were on my list of potential phones and I kind of want to buy the M4 aqua just because it’s so cheap now. Even though I have a mostly functional phone. I’m planning on buying the Sennheiser HD 650 and an amp to pair it with. Also a new tablet that’s capable of running cyanogenmod. I don’t really have a tablet preference. I also wanted to get the ipad mini 4. But… ipads still don’t make sense to me. The hardware is so overpriced… I don’t think I’ll end up getting one this year still.

tl;dr - I have so much stuff. And yet I just want to buy more crap. I’ve been looking forward to black friday for the longest time. And now that it’s here… it’s like meh

Hmmm. It’s wednesday which means my weekly retrospective or whatever. I’m writing this post on Wednesday night… and uh. It’s kinda crazy because my concept of weekdays and time is way off. It feels… so foreign to me that today is Wednesday - even though it is. I think it’s because in my vacation time… it’s only differentiated by wake time vs sleep time. Vacation has been great. I sleep when I’m tired and eat when I’m hungry. And I don’t really plan my days but I get to do what I’ve been meaning to do.

Let’s start with today and go backwards. Hmmm. I woke up at 3pm. Probably bad but I’m borderline sick so it’s okay. I think I’m like sick/recovering from the flu. I’m not deathly sick but I was having a stuffy/runny nose and some tiredness. Anyways. Woke up at 3pm… made a small lunch. Then wasted time. Oh. Watched Free. I started watching Free. So far Free has been different from what I imagined. I’m enjoying it quite a bit cause seeing hot guys makes me inspired to work out and exercise. I could be that hot guy. Watched Free and then went to spin class at 6pm. Spin got moved up one hour because thanksgiving and holidays. The class consisted of four people and I was one of the 4. I’m quite proud. Dedication. Hard work.

I got a entire large pizza for dinner and tomorrow. I’ll be staying home and playing video games on Thanksgiving. And of course… being thankful and refreshing slickdeals hoping for a deal on the Sennheiser HD 650. Last year I got the 598s for $100 this year I’m hoping to get the HD 650 for $200 or less.

Yesterday I went to City Sports gym or whatever. It’s right next to SFSU. I’m surprised that I never visited SFSU… I plan on visiting sometimes next week and just doing some reading outside of the library. I went to yoga/spin yesterday at City Sports. The spin class at City Sports was so good. The bikes there are so much nicer… there’s a digital display that shows what gear you’re on and your rpm so that there’s metrics to keep track of how hard / fast you’re going. Yesterday was intense. I went yoga at 4:30. Then one hour of working out. Then another hour of spin. So I was at city sports for 3 hours. Then right after that… we went to Kome for all you can eat sushi buffet. I think we got there at like 830. And we thought the place closed at 12. But it closes at 900. Which meant that we only had 30 minutes of all you could eat sushi. I managed to eat 6 eel handrolls and a bunch of other food. They let us stay until 930 but we couldn’t get more food at 900. I ended up stacking 3 plates at 900 in order to pig out. It was… kinda bad since at the end of the buffet I reached my max buffet level which is when I can’t sit up straight and walk like a pregnant lady. Kinda regret it but at the same time it was sooooo delicious. Well. 3 hour of gym balanced by all you can eat sushi I guess.

Monday… I did 2 hours of yoga and went to spin class. And I also went to the dance practice. Even though I didn’t dance at all since the group is practicing for the December performance where I won’t be performing. The practice is just the finishing touches and I basically got to see the show in advance. It was pretty cool and I’m excited to actually take part in the future events.

Unfortunately Sunday seems like forever ago. So… gonna stop. Plus I already wrote more than what I expected of myself. It’s all about just starting and putting in the work.

I guess to summarize Thanksgiving 2015. It’s kinda of an early retrospective… but I’m really thankful for everything that’s happened in 2015. 2015 is definitely my best year yet. And I think… so far each year is on track to surpass the previous. Even though physically… I’m still weaker than my prime in 2014. I’ve grown and accomplished so much. I guess I traded some of my gym / physical abilities for more mental / skills. Totally worth it. There’s so much that I’m thankful for that this short summary won’t do it justice. I’ll write a post purely for what I’m thankful for. I guess right now I’m just thankful that I have pizza and video games.

My first week of staycation / time off has ended. It’s been an amazing week.

I’m thankful that I can just take some unpaid time off as needed. I’m thankful for all the positive people that I have in my life. This week I actually spent most of my time catching up with people that I didn’t get to spend much time with. It made me realize how spoiled I am. Some of my friends work 9-5 jobs where they only have a one hour lunch. Every job that I’ve had gave me flexible work hours where my lunches weren’t timed and I can go get coffee whenever I want.

More recently I’m thankful that I live in the States now with amazon.com. I just ordered Sengoku Basara and Dynasty Warriors 8 for PS3 and… there was free single day shipping. I ordered at 3am today(saturday) and it arrives before 9pm today. I’m thankful that I’m surrounded by delicious food and everything is so convenient. I woke up… then walked 10 minutes to Sam Wo in chinatown for delicious food and dinner / takeout. Then I went to the target that’s 5 blocks from my house for some grocery shopping. Everything is walking distance for me and I’m spoiled.

The other day I had dim sum with a friend at 2:30pm. It was glorious. Like… the dim sum place is normally really packed. But it was a weekday at 2:30pm so I’m guessing most people have work. I feel so thankful that I got to experience what it’s like to be.. outside the realms of normal I guess. It’s like… if I were working I wouldn’t get to experience it. Everyone is at work… while I’m having dim sum. So thankful and so spoiled.

I’ve been reading How I raised myself from failure to success in selling by Frank Bettger. It’s a really interesting read. And I was just chilling in cafe / boba / coffee places while reading a book. I’m really thankful that I get to just… enjoy reading a book with coffee in an pretty much empty place. There’s two or three other books that I want to read in my break. I’m really looking forward to more book and coffee time.

I’m thankful that I got to binge watch all the anime that I’ve been backlogged. I finished Jojo’s Bizzare adventure Egypt arc and Isshuukan friends. :)

There’s way more stuff that I’m thankful for. But I guess this is a good start. I’m building the habit of writing a post each day. And this will be the 2nd post of the one post per day streak.

It’s day 3 of my vacation. Spin class was cancelled… even though it was my most looked forward to activity of the day. I had Senor Sisig for lunch and it was delicious. Ovo cafe is still closed for renovation. I think… renovation in US just takes forever. I thought my laundromat would have taken a month. It’s now been 6 months+ with no end in sight. Sigh. Laundry is my most difficult task of the week. I guess… I need to appreciate how spoiled I am. That walking 2 blocks to do laundry is my most difficult task of the week.

I went to the gym yesterday at 1am. I’m still far weaker than my peak physical shape. So it’s time to focus on working out in my time off. I also tried to practice hip hop at the 24h fitness. But… it was hard because I didn’t actually have the individual songs. I only had the full mix which made it hard to practice non stop. I still need to learn the Monsta song. It looks so easy… but when I try to do it. It’s hard.

The other day I had a thought which I’ll probably eventually dedicate an entire post to. It’s that.. you can only willpower yourself so much in real life. In anime and manga you see characters overcome all odds with sheer force of will and belief in themselves… but the reality is willpower can only do so much. I think my willpower great… but even with my great willpower I can’t force myself to lift 2x my max weight. Or use my willpower and translate something into skill such as basketball or dancing. You use willpower to make yourself practice… and the practice is what translate into skill / ability. Willpower by itself can’t really take you that far.

I recently finished Isshuukan Friends and Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure Stardust Crusaders. I’ll write reviews on those while I’m on break. Isshuukan Friends was a nice change from the typical anime that I watch. I guess… it reminded me of some good memories that I had growing up. And Jojo is like the modern day Shaman King. It’s the type of anime that I normally enjoy watching. Jojo is just an unstoppable force.

I don’t remember if I wrote weeklies… I think I definitely skipped a few. But… moral of this post will be just showing up.

It doesn’t matter how many sets of weights you do at the gym. What matters is that you got to the gym. Similarly… it doesn’t matter about pretty much anything… you just gotta show up and try.

The default… is always the easy thing to do. It’s so much easier to stay home and do nothing. It’s so much easier to not take action. It’s so much easier just to sleep, and go on autopilot. You gotta do the harder thing… because in the end the harder thing is always better. even though… maybe in the moment it was sucky… you’ll always be glad you experienced the crap.

I guess the time bend / highlight of the week is that I tried out for a dance workshop. It was a free dance class imo. Totally worth it. And. I got invited back to become an understudy. So I get more free dance classes. teehee. And I also get to meet some super cool people. So much scary things… that I did. I’m still waiting for the outcomes of some of my actions… we’ll see.

Hmm. This week was mostly a normal week. I think… time flies by so fast. Let’s start with today.

I’m thankful that SF weather is just perfect. Sunny without it being overly hot. I’m thankful that 24h fitness exists and I get to go to yoga class on Saturday. Yoga class cost me $5 if you count my membership monthly divided by the visits of yoga. I’m thankful that I have such a good yoga instructor for such a cheap price. I’m thankful that I can walk to yoga. My walking score in San Francisco is 100. I’m thankful that I live so close to chinatown. I can just wake up and walk to chinatown for delicious food. I’m thankful that I don’t have to worry about money. I just went to the bank to withdraw $200.. and I know there are people who need to check their balances before they can withdraw money.. but I just spend without having to worry about money. I don’t have to worry about food.

Looking foward: I’m thankful that my cousins will be visiting me. I’m thankful that I have family that I enjoy spending time with. I’m thankful that I have monday off. Even though I’m planning on doing some work on the weekend.

Looking back… this week I’m thankful for all the supportive and amazing coworkers that I have. I’m thankful for the cool opportunity for my career. I do what I enjoy with freedom and flexibility. I interviewed a guy for work today. It was the first technical interview I gave… and I think I might have been more nervous than the interviewee. But… it was a pretty cool experience and I’m thankful for that.

I wrote so much beautiful code. And I learned so much from code reviews. Life is good. I did a badass live deploy while handling race conditions. I feel so badass.

I’m thankful… that I get to work in my beautifully constructed home. With dual monitors. Standing desk. Sennheiser 598s. And a TV playing my favorite music in the background. Sure… I work long hours… but I enjoy all the time spent working. Like now…. perfect music and coding. Is pretty high on how I enjoy spending my time. It’s crazy that my work is so similar to how I would want to spend my time anyways.

231 days, 2:16:26.604252 63.2876712329

Sigh. It’s over 60% of 2015. I haven’t been writing my weekly entries cause so much shit has been going on in my life. Some good… some bad. Mostly just been really busy and really dumb. I haven’t been sleeping enough… and the lack of sleep is causing my to lose will power and make bad choices of sleeping even less. Not enough sleep -> not enough will power to go to bed on time -> not enough sleep -> the not enough sleep cycle. Sigh.

Last week… was especially crazy. I actually went clubbing in San Jose.. on a Saturday night. Despite the fact that I was sleep deprived. It was such a crazy experience. A really crazy night. I don’t think that it was either positive or negative. I’m trying to practice no judgement. It’s just something that happened.

Recently… I kinda feel like giving up. I kinda feel like quitting. Even though… I’ve achieved so much. And I conquered so much… I still feel like just quitting and giving up. Sigh. I’m messed up. Whenever I reach a new high or a new low… the de facto is to give up. To keep going… is hard.

There’s nothing I can’t handle. I interviewed someone for the company. He was really nervous… so I dunno if it was nerve or actual skill. But… he just did really bad. I think.. either I’m a really good coder… or he’s just bad. Or he’s just nervous. But I couldn’t tell why. Inevitably… I couldn’t go with him because he failed the interview.

My cousin is gonna be visiting next week and I’ll get the opportunity to go to a two Michelin starred restarant and spend $300 on a dinner. Wow. I’m so spoiled. But… oh well. Sigh. It’s like.. I have so much.. and yet I still feel like giving up. Or empty. I blame my mother isssues. Been watching suits lately. And I also read age of anxiety. Freud says all your fucked-up-ness is inevitable mother issues. -.-

I guess it’s true. my mother never paid attention to me. and she would always choose herself over me. maybe that’s why i have trust and attachment issues. and serious trust issues. yeah. imma just blame my mom.

The best headphones ever

The Sennheiser 598s are the best headphones that I ever used. It was a major investment when I first bought it for $200 back in the day. So totally worth it. I actually own 2 pairs. I managed to snag a pair for $120 from the amazon black friday sale. So I guess I averaged around $180 per pair. And now it’s even cheaper so you should totally get it.

The sound quality on the 598s… even unamped is unbelievable. I went from shitty headphones -> Audio Technica ATH-AD700 -> Sennheiser 598s. And each change bought major sound quality changes. Like… you don’t even have to change the source. When you get the Sennheiser 598s… all your old music will sound new again. Because you didn’t even know there were all these amazing instruments in the background. It just blows your mind. The sound quality is amazing. I’m not a true audiophile in a sense that there are people who use specific headphones for specific genres of music. But the Sennheiser 598s are magical. It’s mind blowingly magical.

The other big plus of this is the comfort. I wear glasses and despite the fact that I have glasses I can wear these headphones for pretty much an entire day non stop. I wear them at work for 8 hours a day. And I wear them when I’m home. On weekends sometimes I’ll wear this thing like 14 hours a day. It’s just that comfortable. Even with glasses. Also I should note that I have really big ears. And these headphones totally cover my ears. So the sound and comfort is amazing.

I think that headphones are a quality investment. I easily spend over 2000 hours a year on good headphones. When you compare the price to how much time spent using it. Totally worth it. The quality is amazing. The sound and comfort is so good. You really need to just buy it. Or find a store to try it. Buy it from here now!

tl;dr - Sennheiser 598s are my favorite headphones. They are mind blowingly good in terms of sound quality with great comfort. Get it here

209 days, 23:38:52.987089 57.2602739726 Hmmm. It’s over 55% of the year. This past week my 24h fitness membership expired. I had previously bought the 2 year costco membership. What this means is that I’ve been in San Francisco for 2 years + 7 months. Since I moved here in January and lived in a luxury condo that had a gym for the first 6 months that I was here. That’s kinda crazy. I’m quickly closing on 3 years in San Francisco. That’s almost… 1/9th of my life. I’ve spent… more than 10% of my life in San Francisco. I’ve spent… almost a full undergrad in San Francisco. Whoa.

For all the talk about american healthcare being bad. I feel that it’s actually fine. Sure… healthcare cost my employer a fortune. But for me… it’s essentially the same in the States as Canada. Actually… it might actually be cheaper. I saw my sports chiropractor this Monday. I think the average visit is like $50. And considering.. the time that I woke up with crazy back pain… it’s actually really convenient that I have such a wonderful doctor available.

I’ve been feeling a bit out of it recently. Work has been crazy stressful because of a project deadline. But I guess… even with the stress. It’s nothing I can’t handle. And… I guess it also helps that I really enjoy my work. Just listening to music and building things in Python. It brings me so much joy. I guess… in a way I’m really lucky. Not many people get to say that they enjoy their day to day work. So… I guess in a way. The stress is good.

I think I’m back to my pre vacation fitness levels. Almost. Saturday I went to yoga. Monday I went to yoga + spin. Yesterday I went to the gym for my 5x5. And today I went to spin again. Then again… the 20 minute run yesterday night… was a lot more mentally taxing than I remember it. I guess it was a test of will. And my will didn’t falter. So that’s good.

I started reading a new book. It’s called age of anxiety. It talks about how the author lived through lots of anxiety and stuff. It’s funny because I spent almost 2 hours last week looking up psychopath / sociopath… I was wondering if I was one. It’s unfortunate that I’m not a psychopath. Since I experience fear. And guilt. And shame. Sometimes I wish I was a psychpath so I wouldn’t have to experience those negative emotions. I guess you gotta be able to experience to lows in order to experience the highs. I was flying high. But then Toronto happened. I guess it’ll serve as a reminder that there’s really nothing left for me in Toronto. I tried going back and spending time with my family. It’s funny that when living with my family… I actually feel more isolated and in some ways lonely. Maybe someday I’ll fix that problem. But for now… I’ll take the Vanille route and just run. I think it’s fine to run from your problems when you don’t need to fix it yet.

August is gonna be an interesting month. I don’t have much planned except I definitely am going to visit an isolation tank in SF. I think that’ll be my time bending activity of the month.

I’m doing a lot of javascript at work. It’s uhh… pretty interesting. I should probably write a programming article on it at some point. I think my javascript is at a level where I’m fully functional which means that I can build whatever it is that I want. But the way that javascript works at work is that I would classify it as “Enterprise Javascript” which means that the javascript is all megacorp and fancy. Not hack and make it work. I guess it’s really important to know how to write uh… proper enterprise like javascript. But I guess since I don’t really enjoy front end work… it doesn’t interest me. I guess this is what they mean that you should only go for what you’re passionate about. I feel like all my PR’s get massive scope creeped because I have to refactor to do it the ‘proper’ way. /shrug. I’ve spent a lot of time learning this new javascript library. I think all javascript libraries have a steep learning curve before it actually helps you out… which I guess I rather be able to do stuff right away.

I feel like I’m just totally crushing it at work. I think… the Toronto time made me uh… appreciate what I have so much more. Like… I take for granted that although work can be stressful and take up large chunks of my life… in the end it’s something that I enjoy immensely. It’s fortunate that I really enjoy what I’m paid to do. Today at 24h fitness… it turns out my 24h fitness membership expired. So… it’s been officially 2 years since I moved into my current location. Wow. That’s kinda crazy. I’ve been in SF for… 2 years + 7 months. I spent the first 7 months in a luxury condo with free gym membership so I didn’t need 24h fitness. Wow. I guess…. next January will be my 3 year anniversary at SF. Time goes by… pretty fast.

I recently discovered Zanze’s cheesecake. My mind is blown. I had a $20 small cheesecake delivered to my doorstep. The delivery + tip was like $20. The otaku life in SF. I don’t think I’ll be able to get that in Japan. I’d need to buy my own cheesecake. For shame. I’ve been listening to Last Stardust on infinite loop at work. Last Stardust was such an amazing insert song. And the flashback for Shiro… it’s so hauntingly beautiful. I need to start planning my days again. I’ve just been free forming it. So now… for tomorrow. I gotta merge my mega pr at work and start on a new service. I’ll be going to hip hop class after work. And then I’ll write an article on my favorite pair of headphones. The Sennheiser 598s. My big 3 things for tomorrow.

I’m finally back from vacation. I was actually back about a week ago… or almost two weeks ago. But I spent most of the time resting. This week is the first week that I started following my usual routine.

I finished my first workout yesterday. I only lost about 2 months of working out. So not as bad as the 6 months prior. I struggled a lot to run 2,2 miles in 20 minutes. And then after squatting like… 75 pounds… I got crazy leg cramps. It was kinda interesting because the girl beside me was squatting more than me. Today I went to spin class and it was so amazing.

I spent 4 weeks in Toronto followed by 5 days in LA. LA was vacation and Toronto was semi vacation. I was working remotely in Toronto but then I had lots of tasty food and I consider it almost vacation. The thing I realized is that… my usual life is so amazing. The current place that I had, my work, my weekly routines. It’s better to me than vacation. Both for my mental and physical health and just for my overall happiness. Living with my family actually made me… less happy. Kinda weird right. /shrug.

I went to anime expo. It was kind of a crazy experience. I was definitely a bit overwhelmed since I’m uh.. not fond of crowds. And it was really freaking crowded. Even more so than Fanime.

San Francisco life is so good compared to Canada. I gots the Lyft to drive me to places. I got the instacart to deliver me groceries. And I got the Postmates to deliver me boba. And amazon prime. Amazon prime is so amazing. Amazon.com is so much better than amazon.ca.

The good thing about my vacation is that I spent some time reading. I finished two books that I’ll eventually review. The art of asking and Trying not to try. Both books were recommended to me via a philosophy blog post I think. Both are philosophical and mental in nature. I feel that… I have all this amazing abilities… and that I can do so much… but it’s like my mental is off sometimes.

I also recently finished Fate/Stay night Unlimited Blade Works. The anime is so good.

There was something else that I wanted to write about… but my mind is struggling to recall it. So I guess I’ll just stop here. My weekly update should hopefully resume weekly. And this is a mega post recounting random things I remember from my vacation.

I recently planned on daily posts on my blog. Saturdays will be dedicated to writing about things I”m thankful for. A bunch of happiness books / ted talks about how being thankful and appreciating what you have makes you a happeier person. So I guess the thankful series is a way for me to try and be happier by being more thankful.

I started off the day being woken up by an amazon delivery. I’m grateful that I live in America, and specifically San Francisco. Amazon prime makes life so convenient. I got floss, conditioner and socks delivered to my doorstep. And for a cheaper price I would’ve paid for if I still had to buy it myself in Canada. America is a pretty sweet place to be living in.

I’m thankful that I don’t have to worry about my meals. I woke up and I could’ve ordered food with postmates / eat24 / walked to chinatown. I just cooked something today and it was simple and delicious. I made pasta with chicken. I’m thankful that the internet has made television so accessible. I marathon watched Silicon Valley. I’m up to the end of season 2 with only one episode left. Silicon Valley is so funny… because there’s actually so much… truth in the show. Bro is such a joke app. But then we had Yo… which had funding. And last year… I actually used yo so much because it was hilarious.

I got the platinum trophy for FFX today. I was just bored and felt like completing it. Paid Yojimbo 200k to Zanmato the uber aeon for me because I couldn’t be bothered to beat him legitimately. I’m thankful that I have my dream home almost. The only thing missing from my current place is a gym inside the building. And laundry. But everything else is pretty perfect and I’m thankful for what I gots.

tl;dr - I’m thankful for amazon, tasty food, and having video games in my life

I finally bought a new phone. I got the Asus Zenfone 2 for $199. It’s an amazing phone. Except the battery life is atrocious. It didn’t even make it through a 12 hour stretch of fanime usage. Sigh. Too fail.

    147 days, 1:38:22.522782
    40.2739726027

I previously wrote about how I spent a lot of time just waiting… waiting for the phone to come out. And I finally got it. And it’s nothing special. It’s just a phone. I can see a lot of positives in the new phone… the camera is really nice. But there are also huge flaws in the shitty battery life. And how asus piled a shit ton of bloatware / useless shit. And they have shitty UI. Sigh. Vanilla android is the best.

So I went to Fanime this weekend. I took the Caltrain to San Jose. Each day of the con… I took the 1:15 caltrain from SF and would arrive at 3:30pm. I am not a morning person. Even though I wanted to go to the con earlier. I guess if I go next year I’ll be sure to just get a hotel. I got lots of pictures with good cosplayers which I’ll be sharing on my instagram.

Wow. It’s already almost June. And I’ll be going to Toronto for a month. That’s kind of crazy. I’m not sure how Toronto is going to be… I guess it’s going to be lots of Tim Hortons… and delicious food. Last time I went back was 2 years ago or was it one year ago? Last time I went back… I lost over 3 months of 5x5 workout gains because all I did was eat food and get fat in Toronto… This time I’ll be sure to exercise properly. Just doing some daily pushups and body weight squats should hopefully make the setback only 1 month this time.

I’m actually kind of… wary of going back. I mean. I miss my family, and toronto food… and friends. But at the same time… my family isn’t really good for me mentally. The asian family is like… there are only flaws and limitations. Whereas in America… it’s all about opportunity. /shrug.

    [ishida@ishida-fx420 random]$ python days.py 
    132 days, 22:14:32.251400
    36.1643835616

I haven’t been blogging recently because in the back of my mind I’ve been planning the move to Jekyll and I didn’t want to add more to the wordpress that would grow the migration. I think I might have missed 3 weeks so I think this week will be a mega post. So much has happened and my brain was overflowing with thoughts from my work from yoga.

I guess I’ll just write about things in reverse chronological order since the most recent thing is the most fresh in my mind. I just had a bowl of delicious pho. The pho was picked up and delivered to my door… and it only cost me $10 after tip and everything. Well… it would’ve cost me $25 but then I have postmates delivery credits. I guess… it’s kind of crazy that I’m pretty much living the dream that I had originally wanted for myself. I wanted to live alone and be able to do whatever I want. And in a sense… that’s what I’m doing. I even have delicious food delivered to my doorstep. It’s pretty much only available in San Francisco.

On my way back to yoga a thought just randomly passed through me so I’ll quickly jot it down here. It’ll probably become a learnings post at some point in time. There’s this saying that stuck with me which is “There is nothing good or bad but just thinking that makes it so” or some variation of it. My own personal spin to that quote is that “there is nothing easy or hard but just thinking that makes it so”. Whenever I think something is going to be easy or something is going to be hard… it almost always ends up as being true. The Jekyll migration was something that I was putting off. I knew that it wouldn’t take me longer than a weekend…. but I just had to block off one weekend to make it happen. And when I spent my entire weekend hacking to make it work… it was actually so much fun. For me Software Engineering and solving problems is just so much fun. It’s kind of crazy that I get paid to do what I enjoy so much. At the same time… I think I’m almost ready to try something new. I guess… despite the fact that my current life is so comfortable and amazingly good… there’s something else that I want to achieve.

I went to Yosemite during the Mayweather fight weekend. I probably would’ve used the mega fight as an excuse to not go to Yosemite if I knew about it beforehand. The Yosemite trip really wore me down even though I enjoyed it immensely. I can see why Yosemite is considered a national treasure to California. It’s actually just very beautiful. Living in the city… it’s so rare for me to go to the wild and experience nature. At the same time… there were bugs everywhere and I came back with a shit ton of bug bites.

I worked from home the Monday after Yosemite because I was really sleep deprived and hungry. We took a tour bus which fed us… but the meals were vegetarian and stuff. Monday just reminded me of how amazing my life is. I got back from Yosemite. Took a nap. Ordered food to my house. Got instacart delivered. Did laundry. And then wrote some tests and code and even deployed to production. My job is so much fun and I appreciate it so much. I know that I’m already spoiled. All my jobs were in tech and I never had a micro manager to deal with or even preset hours where I had to get to work by blah.

I’m quite excited for Bay to Breakers this weekend. There was so much more that I felt like I wanted to write but then my brain isn’t working… peace out for now.