• I was promoted to Senior QA Engineer in May 2012 at my company! I still can’t believe I’ve been doing QA for four years already. Time flies when you’re old.
• I moved into a studio in Manhattan and no longer have a roommate. Life is wonderful!
• My company was acquired by a much larger company (salesforce.com) at the end of 2012. Now I can say proudly that every company I have worked out since graduating college has been acquired.
• Went back to Taiwan in September/October 2012 with my wonderful boyfriend. This time around we had the chance to ride the High-Speed Rail (HSR) and visit Kaohsiung, Tainan and Kenting. It was really great even with the typhoon warning. We also went to the famous Taroko Gorge for a day trip with an excellent English-speaking tour.
• Took my first programming class with Skillshare since college!
• I turned 30 and realized it was time to change my lifestyle by eating healthier. I managed to lose about 20 pounds since July 2012!
• Heading to Tokyo/Taipei in four days with my best girlfriends! I’m so excited. I pre-ordered our Ghibli Museum tickets. We are also going to Disney Sea!

Well that’s about it for now. We’ll see if I can update my sad site more than once a year!

I have great memories of Agong. He was always playing with me. He was a fierce Chinese checkers opponent. In his later years, when he started to get sick, he would cling to certain memories of each grand child. For me, he always spoke about how I would always go to the airport to pick up Ama and Agong with my dad. After a few months, they would pack up and then I’d go to the airport to drop them off with my dad. Back in the day, non-passengers could go as far as security to send off their loved ones. He spoke about how I would always ask why they had so many kids and why they couldn’t just stay with my family. Then I would cry at the airport because I didn’t want them to leave me. I totally remember crying and waving through the glass window to my grandparents as they walked away through security.

It scares me how I’m getting older and that death is just so much more real now. Now, I feel like that little girl again. I don’t want my Agong to leave me.

Sadly, I will be returning to Taiwan in a month to say my final farewells to Agong.

My last visit with Agong in October 2010

As the company morale at the new company deteriorated drastically (many personnel changes/departures), I decided that I didn’t want to stay for the ride. I was used my LinkedIn skills and found a college classmate who had bunch of mutual contacts as me. Lucky for me, I was able to contact him even though were weren’t “friends”. It turns out I had just applied for a QA position with his company so I reached out to him just to verify if the position was even available. I believe that a lot of company career websites are not kept updated and after applying online, where exactly does my resume go? I didn’t expect this contact to reply any time soon, but within a week he did and invited me in for an interview the NEXT day with the Director of QA.

The interview went well and they had an offer letter ready for me in less than a week! It was pretty amazing just how quickly they moved. I start this new position on Monday (6/20) after having 19 days off. It’s the first time in my short career where I’ve had time in between jobs. It’s been really great. I went home to visit my parents and sister in Long Island. I reverted to my suburban life and visited my childhood mall. I even purchased a nice Coach bag as a celebratory gift to myself. I guess it could be a super early birthday gift!

I then visited my wonderful and supportive boyfriend in Tampa. We had a great time. He even took me to the batting cages so I could attempt to hit balls. He is my witness that I made contact with more than 50% of the balls. Too bad my super soft hands get blisters so easily. We dined at the Refinery after I read how they were nominated for the James Beard Award. They use local ingredients and therefore their menu changes on a weekly basis. We had a really good meal there. Jeff ordered the hanger steak as his entree and I got the pork ribs. So yummy! We shared a chocolate cupcake with bacon frosting. It was a lot better than I expected. I’m not a big fan of salty and sweet desserts so I was hesitant in ordering the dessert. However, our friendly waiter informed us that he tried it that morning (it was the first day of the new menu) and that it wasn’t too sweet and really good. I’m glad I took a chance!

When I returned from Tampa, I went straight to a NKOTBSB concert with my college friend. It was pretty fantastic. She is a huge BSB fan and I used to follow NKOTB when I was really little. I think the only reason I was a “fan” was because my older sister and cousin were huge fans. I just copied whatever they did. My first ever concert at the tender age of 8 was a NKOTB concert! I had the NKOTB sheets and outfits. It was pretty ridiculous! We even visited the members’ homes in Worcester, MA. I think my favorite NKOTB song was “Step By Step” and they performed it at the end of the set. Yay! For the rest of the week, I’ve been going to Bar Method (my latest gym obsession), FlyWheel (hit my highest total power!), doctor and dentist. I can’t believe it’s Friday already! I made pizza and cookies. Now I’m watching some trashy TV. What a great night!

Lastly, I am really excited for the last Harry Potter movie. Who wants to see it with me? My boyfriend is hoping someone is kind enough to see it with him so he doesn’t need to!

1. I’m super excited that it’s Tribecal Film Festival time in NYC. I am going to be seeing three movies – Let The Bullets Fly, Detachment and The Good Doctor. I hope one of them will be good. Last year’s William Vincent starring James Franco was horrible. I’m also happy that I won’t be volunteering at TFF this time around. I’ll actually have time to watch movies!
2. My boyfriend is visiting me in less than a week!! We will be attending a Yankees game (against Toronto of course) and getting Lombardi’s at some point.
3. My cousin who is getting her PhD in London will be in NYC for a couple of weeks. Looking forward to hanging out with her. Dinner reservations at Le Bernardin have been made.
4. Still no true signs of Spring. I heard that there will be a warm-up next week. Perhaps sun will be in the forecast as well?

I’m going to try to update more often. I’m open to suggestions on what I should post about. I did go on a wonderful vacation with boyfriend to Hawaii. We survived a tsunami wave scare. It was definitely a vacation we won’t forget! I had a lovely time with my boyfriend and Hawaiian friends.

I’ve decided with all my recent baking of cookies and muffins, I’m interested in buying a hand mixer and a mini food processor. I made some jam thumbprint cookies for work and they were a bit of a failure as the dough was way too dry even though I had used three sticks of butter. I’d like to think a hand mixer would be helpful in this kind of situation. My ultimate kitchen appliance would be a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. I plan on getting one once I have a real place with a full-sized kitchen.

My boyfriend just visited over the weekend. He brought along many wonderful gifts. I hinted about a Coach wallet to J and of course he was listening! I was totally surprised that he also got me a North Face fleece with a hoodie. I’ve been thinking about getting this fleece by myself, but now I don’t need to! Jeff and I watched three movies during the extended weekend: Black Swan, The Fighter and True Grit. As expected, Black Swan was really intense, dark and crazy. I enjoyed it though. It was a bit graphic to see just how much ballerinas go through. The toe shots were a bit too much for me! The Fighter was really good and I believed that Christian Bale was really crazy and a crack addict like his character. Mark Wahlberg was also really good in his role as Micky Ward. I love inspirational based on a true story movies (The Blindside). It’s really heart-warming and gives me hope. True Grit, was a John Wayne remake. I have never seen a Western movie before this one. It was actually quite entertaining and exciting. I had trouble understanding Jeff Bridges’ cowboy accent, but I guess that was on purpose. Matt Damon was pretty hilarious with his character. All in all, it was a great movie weekend. I hope the next time I’m in Tampa, we’ll be able to watch The King’s Speech with Colin Firth.

I’m really going to try to update my personal blog more often. Hopefully, I’ll have things to write about. I also have been updating my food blog.

Besides seeing my family, I introduced my boyfriend to Taiwan. Hopefully, I did not scare him off! I definitely understand if our next vacation is NOT in an Asian country. He will get to pick our next vacation spot. I do hope he enjoyed all the temples we visited. Who knew Taiwan/Taipei had so many temples? Also, he finally got to experience the Taiwanese buffet. It is just SO MUCH BETTER! Yum. I definitely will miss all the delightful food. There’s always a bubble tea shop within a few steps away. It’s just so convenient. I’ll live it up for my last few days. I will be sure to have a mango icy for the boy!

I do have something to look forward to in the midst of all this sadness. My boyfriend will be arriving in NYC in less than a week. We will go to ALL his favorite places to celebrate his birthday! There will be sushi, pizza, cupcakes, shabu shabu, falafel, etc. Of course we will watch at least one movie, specifically “The Town” starring Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm (from “Mad Men”) and Jeremy Renner (from “The Hurt Locker”). I’m really excited to see it! Ben has been picking much better movies to direct or act in. Also, in less than a month, we’ll be traveling to Taiwan together for the first time. I’ll be going on a diet before my trip so I can eat all my favorite foods without feeling too guilty. Plus, maybe this will prevent my family friends from commenting on how “fat” I am. I’ve learned to accept that I’m considered obese in Taipei. I do love coming back to America (Land of the Fatties) after a trip to Asia. I feel tiny next to these mammoth Americans. I guess it helps with my self-confidence after being told I’m a XL or even XXL in Taiwan.

You say you wander your own land
But when I think about it
I don’t see how you can
You’re aching, you’re breaking
And I can see the pain in your eyes
Says everybody’s changing
And I don’t know why

So little time
Try to understand that I’m
Trying to make a move to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody’s changing
And I don’t feel the same

You’re gone from here
And soon you will disappear
Cause everybody’s changing
And I don’t feel right

So little time
Try to understand that I’m
Trying to make a move to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody’s changing
And I don’t feel the same

So little time
Try to understand that I’m
Trying to make a move to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody’s changing
And I don’t feel the same

In geek news, I decided to purchase the iPhone 4. I am a slave to Apple. I’m not proud of it. When they first announced the new design, I was in love. I however was not qualified for the $299 upgrade so I’d have to fork over $499 if I wanted an “early” upgrade. To my luck, my good friend was willing to purchase my 3GS for $195 (friend discount). With this money, my early upgrade would be essentially the same price as the regular upgrade price. I decided that I would try to get the phone on June 29th at my local AT&T store. I confirmed with an employee that they would be selling the iPhone 4 on Tuesday starting at 7am. This employee warned me that people would be sleeping over night to wait for the phone. I set my alarm the night before for 4:30am. I ended up waking up by myself at 4am (maybe it was my excitement). I left the apartment around 4:45am to check out how long the line would be. I guess there wasn’t much marketing about the AT&T launch because I was #9 in line. Not bad! I also seemed to be an amateur with waiting in line at 5am. Most people in line had brought chairs, food, blankets, etc. All I had was my purse. I guess next time I wait for an iPhone I’ll be more prepared? The store opened a few minutes after 7am. By this time, there were at least 50 people behind me. They let us in groups. I was in the first group.

My sales person was an older man and I automatically assumed he would take a long time to ring me up. I was the last one to leave in my “group”. That’s okay because he was very polite even though he was slow. He tried to sell me accessories and the only thing I was interested in was the Speck Candyshell. I love this case because it’s both hard and soft. Because of this, it protects the phone very well from accidental drops. My sales person said they did not have them in stock, but he could order it for me. They only had two colors: black or purple. I picked purple since it would stand out more in my bag. He told me that they would ship it to my apartment. By Tuesday afternoon, I received and e-mail from AT&T letting me know it had shipped out via UPS 2nd Day Air. Wow, not bad for free shipping! I also got suckered into buying a mirrored screen protector. For all you iPhone owners, do NOT waste your money with the mirrored screen protector. When it’s really sunny outside, I can barely see my screen. Also, it’s pretty difficult to take pictures of things when all you see is your reflection. All in all, the iPhone 4 purchase went pretty smoothly. I have no complaints. I guess it’s good I wasn’t interested in the secretive white iPhone 4. I asked the AT&T employees when this phone would come out and one answered, “Is there even a white iPhone?” Haha.

Anyway, this was an early birthday gift to myself. I won’t be “shopping” until next week since I received all these birthday coupons from Banana Republic, DSW, Loehmann’s, Filene’s Basement, etc. So much temptation! I can’t resist a good deal.

My boyfriend, Jeff, will be returning from his deployment to Afghanistan in less than a week. I can’t believe it’s already been two months. I can’t wait to celebrate my birthday with him!