Category: Parenting
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Distributed Computing – Goodbye and thanks for the wonderful semester
I just finished Spring 2021 at Georgia Tech OMSCS and published a farewell note on the classroom’s forum (i.e. Piazza platform) and would like to share that here: This was one hell of a semester! Hats off to professor Ada and our great TAs — I learned a great deal about both theoretical and practical…
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COVID-19 stunting Elliott’s social skills
Like almost every other parent, my wife and I are doing our best to shelter our 16-month year old daughter, Elliott, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, us parents trying to fabricate a bubble with some sense of normalcy. Up until recently, I tricked myself into believing that we could mask (or minimize) the…
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Week in Review: 2021/01/17 – 2021/01/24
Not too much to report this week. Not because nothing happened, but because I wasn’t at diligent in capturing this week’s activities; I was on-call this week and carrying the pager almost always disrupts my flow, this week being no exception. My pager alarmed me out of bed several times (e.g. 12:30 AM, 2:30 AM,…
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To fading memories
One silver lining of COVID-19 is that I’m working remotely from home and despite the constant interruptions, I’ve grown to appreciate situation. I’m afforded experiences not normally available to me when working physically in the office. Among which is seeing my daughter grow up, right before my eyes. Every day, I catch these fleeting moments,…
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Weekly Review – Week ending in 2020/11/01
No Halloween this year I used to love Halloween growing up, not so much the dressing up part but the knocking on doors and getting handed fist fulls of candy. Now, as an adult, I love returning the favor and always think about giving out larger than average candy and chocolate. But not this year,…
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Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/24
Today I’m posting a super short daily review given that the midterm (for advanced operating systems) opens up in about 13 hours. Writing Published on drifting apart (as part of my daily review) Published my first set of guesses to the mid term questions Parenting and family matters Held Elliott in my arms while we…
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On building online learning communities & Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/23
Thanks to my wife for encouraging me to pull the trigger and start my online study group (i.e. the “war room”) for my advanced operating systems course. Basically, the idea came about after chatting with a class mate of mine and during our video call, I realized how many of us are basically studying alone…
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On drifting apart & Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/22
Before stepping into parenthood, my wife and I would often read about other couples scheduling time for being “intimate” (aka sex), time alone just for the two parents. Without this deliberate effort, parents can fall into the trap of focusing 100% of their time on raising their children and forgetting what its like to be…
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Being present in the moment & Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/21
Being fully present as a parent all the time seems like an impossible feat. Although I’d like to think that I’m always present with my daughter, I do find myself sometimes mentally checking out. For example, yesterday, Jess had reminded me during lunch I should be in the here and now instead of scrolling on…
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(Re) learning how to doodle & Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/20
I’m (re) learning how to doodle! I’d like to incorporate art and sprinkle sketches into notes that I scribble down while studying for graduate school. Also, I just miss drawing, an activity I used to do a lot as little boy. But somewhere between then and becoming an adult I’ve lost my way, losing touch with…
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Remembering September 11 & Daily Review (day ending on 09/11/2020)
Yesterday was September 11. On this day, every year, Americans grieve and we are all reminded of the unforgettable day back in 2001 when the New York twin towers collapsed to the ground after being struck by the hijacked planes. I sure remember the day. I was about 12 years old at the time and…
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Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/10
We often talk about work life balance, separating the two major parts of our lives. On some level, I agree with the philosophy, believe that work is work and life is life. But at least for me, what happens at work bleeds into my personal life, and vice versa. When I have a shitty day…
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Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/09
After freeing a spider into the front yard, I noticed that the coffee mug (in which I trapped the spider in) was decorated with a beautiful web that the spider must’ve spun overnight. Almost every other day, I spot a spider dancing across the white walls of my bedroom. Instead of squishing them to death…
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Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/08
The most interesting side effect of writing these daily reviews is that they stir up meaningful conversations with my wife. Apparently, much of what words I set on paper never make their way out of my mouth (despite thinking that I did verbally share them). Surely this situation of my brain tricking me into thinking…
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Daily Review – Day ending in 2020/09/07
Yesterday Writing Blogged and published an entry describing my naive scheduler for project 1 Emotions I disassociated and my mind wandered into its “own world” after my wife Jess asked me to watch Elliott later that afternoon. I think part of the reason why I got so worked up had less to do with her…
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Daily Review – 2020/08/26
What’s your chief aim for today Write and publish one piece on this blog Review Inbox and Important projects sitting in OmniFocus (this was a miss yesterday) Put in 1 hour study session before and after work for advanced operating systems (seems unlikely since I woke up at 05:00 instead of 04:30 and made the…
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Daily Review – 2020/08/25
What’s your chief aim for today Recover from waking up from 03:00 AM from being woken up from operational issue Write and publish one piece on this blog Review Inbox and Important projects sitting in OmniFocus Put in 1 hour study session before and after work for advanced operating systems Chip away at writing one-pager…
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Little Elliott has found her voice
[fvplayer id=”1″] Just a short little video milestone of Elliott finding her voice, which sounds raspier than usual since I think she may have overdone it yesterday, making this “ah ah ah” noise for 14 hours.
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I’m a messy person: it’s time for a change.
I’m pretty embarrassed of how disorganized and messy our house looks and feels. I forget the color of the bathroom tile since its hidden from view due to dirty clothes sprawled out across the entire floor. I’m afraid of raising my standing desk for fear of a monitor toppling over due a caught wire and…
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What vacation looks like with a 10 month year old
Summary I never could’ve imagine what being a parent (to a 10 month year old) looks like while on a vacation at the Suncadia Hotel (in the midst of a pandemic). When our daughter sleeps sprawled out on the cloud like king size bed, us two parents are quietly scarfing down our cold dinner while…
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Top 6 photos from first family photo shoot
Below are my top 6 photos I cherry picked from our first family photo shoot that took place a couple weeks ago. As some of you my already know, my daughter Elliott was born recently, on October 3rd (2019). And shortly after, my wife had arranged for a professional photographer — Stephanie BC — to…