Branching Point
Today, I finished up cleaning up my desk in the lab. All I had to take home was my coffee equipment, my lava lamp1, and some papers and files that I needed...
First Night
Today was an early start. I barely got any sleep last night since I had to wake up anyway at 3am to get to YVR in time to catch my 6am flight. Turns out,...
How Do I Do This?
My weekly routine almost invariably consists of me waking up, getting ready, and going into the lab. I usually arrive between 8 and 9 (toward 9 more recently...
The Postgame
Back when I was a kid, I remember playing a Harry Potter game on a console. If I remember correctly, it was the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the...
Paper Writing
For the last two (2) weeks, I’ve been pretty deep into writing. For me, that means sitting around in the lab for most of the day, while writing a paragraph...
So Much for Consistency
It looks like my last one of these was nearly a month ago. There isn’t a real reason why I’ve neglected to write every week beyond the fact that I got lazy...
Return to Form
I came back from ICSE a week ago, and I've been spending the last week at home since I didn't want to give whatever I was carrying back from ICSE to my lab...
ICSE Day 4: Prehistoric Planet
No matter what people might say or think, the subtitle of tonight’s newsletter (Prehistoric Planet) does not refer to the senior researchers I met at ICSE. I...
ICSE Day 2: Gail Murphy Edition
Today ended a bit earlier, mostly because I was too tired from an early start and generally just walking around and taking photos all day. In the morning, I...
Ick Sea Day 1
I'm going to admit, it took me a few times to correctly navigate to this website where I do my blog/newsletter posting. But hey, I made it. It's been quite a...
ICSE Day 0
It’s been a while since I wrote one of these, but I will use the excuse for a family visit for the one I missed two weeks ago. I have no excuse for not...
Clothes
Last week, I got a stain on my favourite shirt. Folks in the lab or who spend some amount of time with me probably know the shirt I’m talking about; the...
Taking a Breather
I didn't write anything last Sunday because I felt pretty tired. I assumed that I would have a week to recalibrate and perhaps feel a bit more refreshed, but...
Long (Long) Weekend
This weekend, I was taking care of Gary and Peeka, who are the cats of one of my coworkers from an internship long ago. This usually means I pack up my bags...
Back at the Cafe
I spent part of yesterday at the cafe that I used to frequent on weekends before the pandemic and through most of my undergrad. I’m writing this newsletter...
Dim Sum
Last week, I helped organize a dim sum lunch (brunch?) with some folks from the lab. “Helped organize” might be a bit of a stretch, since I basically took on...
Pachinko
On Friday, I gave myself the task of not looking at any code on the weekend. Unfortunately, by Saturday afternoon, I had already failed to achieve this. That...
Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life
This weekend was a bit more eventful than the others. I went to the lab yesterday, and found a cardboard box on my desk. The sender's address was from the...
Daylight Savings
It's 6:20pm as I write this, and it's still light outside. People generally seem to like the extra few hours of daylight in the day, but I've always had no...
Normalcy?
Before the events of the past two years, my weekends would basically consist of me packing up my bag and heading downtown. I had a specific spot in a...
Conflict
Two weeks ago, during my weekly 1:1 with my supervisor, I asked “Do you have any advice if shit ends up hitting the fan?” I was referring to my JetBrains...
Collaboration
This is a pretty late newsletter by my standards, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was dragging my feet on writing this. There’s no reason for that other...
Druk
I’m writing another newsletter from the lab. The weather outside is amazing; it’s not raining at all, and for Vancouver, that’s saying something. I guess I...
Coming Up Next
I honestly can’t tell you what happened earlier this week, because I don’t really remember much of it. But let’s take a look at my calendar and see what...
Software Engineering Research
It’s a Sunday afternoon, and I’m in the lab. I hear the low hum of the fridge, and the soft, almost inaudible “whoosh” of the HVAC system. Outside, the week-...
Doing Nothing, for Once
This weekend, I did absolutely nothing. By “nothing,” this time, I mean nothing related to work or research. I feel pretty guilty about this, but it is what...
Presentation Week
The past week has been pretty busy. I finished up TA orientation yesterday. It was the first time that I planned it alone, but luckily, I had a template from...
TA Orientation and Kotlin (Funny Number Issue)
Last Week Was pretty busy. TA Planning I realized that the start of term wasn't too far off, and that meant I needed to help plan the TA orientation session...
Think of a Title
The year is now 2022, and it’s already shaping up to be a big year. If all goes according to plan (which, of course, is highly unlikely) I’ll be done my...
"You know, I'm something of a scientist, myself"
Warning: this newsletter contains minor plot details for Spider-Man: No Way Home The Last (two) Week(s) Unfortunately, I forgot to write a newsletter entry...
(Near) End of Year Productivity
When I left the house this morning, the rain turned from liquid to questionably hard semi-solid in a matter of minutes. In other words, it started snowing....
December? What?
2021 has appeared to move even faster than 2020 (granted, a lot of my time in 2020 was spent staying at home so my perception of time probably isn’t...
Black Swan Event
A black swan event describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit...
What's Research Like? (1/4)
It’s nearing the almost three-month mark of me actually 1 doing research. If I target late August 2022 or sometime in September 2022 as my “finish” date, I’m...
Oh Fuck I Almost Forgot
As the title suggests, I nearly forgot to write my newsletter (blog post? whatever) today. Last week was the first fall reading week 1. In undergrad, I’d...
Back to It
I didn’t write a newsletter last weekend because my family had come on a very short-notice visit. For reasons I really won’t get into, I’m not very close...
Weekend Storm
I’m gonna keep this one super short, because I feel like there isn’t that much to say. I could try to squeeze out some stuff, but that wouldn’t really be...
Midweek Special
In my newsletter last Sunday, I mentioned that I was writing a thesis "proposal" so that I wouldn't have to struggle to explain "what the hell" I was doing...
Socks and Fall Weather
I’ve honestly talked a big talk over the week about sock wars, but I know for sure that I’m probably gonna get eliminated in the first week. I’ve never been...
Mental Models to Source, and Back Again
I’m writing another newsletter (blog post) later in the day again. This time, I’m at Adam’s place. After being brutally headbutted over and over again by a...
Weekend with Cat
Cat Last Tuesday, I got a message from a friend of mine, who I met while I was an intern at Hootsuite. He asked me if I had any plans for the weekend, and I...
Iterating
Remember what I wrote in last week’s newsletter? If I’m being honest, I’m not sure if this idea is fully-formed yet, but I might as well write it down so I...
Honing In
It's another cloudy Sunday (classic Vancouver), and I'm back at the usual cafe I go to. There's a staff member that must have overheard me speak Korean one...
First Week Madness
It’s been a bit of a wild first week back to school, as I am sure other people have had as well. A little over a year has passed since I’ve started writing...
Back to School
Sunday September 5, 2021 11:38am Overcast, 18 °C Last week was the first time in a while when I'd had a pretty long stretch of "downtime." I foolishly didn't...
Retrospective
Friday was my last day at Twitter, bookending a series of events that began back in January of this year. I’d honestly never expected to work at a large tech...
Winding Down this Summer
On about Monday or so last week, I was taking a shower when I felt my stomach drop; I forgot to write a newsletter for last Sunday! There goes my supposed...
Questions
Last week, I half-jokingly added the tweet below to my list of "thesis ideas" that are more a collection of jokes than actual ideas for my thesis: "Search...
Minecraft, U-Haul, and The Green Knight
10:38PM It's a bit of a late newsletter, considering I usually write + send these at around noon. I'm usually sitting at the same place at the same cafe,...
Trusting Software and Developer Workflows
This past week, I estimate that I spent about 3-4 hours trying to make sense of some strange behaviour that I've been seeing in some code. I'm currently...