projects | blog
May 15, 2026 12:57 PM
prioritizing myself means deprioritizing everything else
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i'm still trying to find the right balance
May 9, 2026 6:10 PM
the confidence of a white man
I was invited to be on a Women in Tech panel for one of NCWIT's Aspirations in Computing event. The organizers provided a list of questions to answer, to talk about my experiences in the field and to give advice to the young students. But the main purpose of the event is that it's an awards ceremony for high schoolers that are involved in technology, who have already shown great promise and accomplishments at such a young age!
When I was in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do for a career. Sure, I did well in school, but I didn't even think about college until the summer before senior year. I hadn't done any computer programming yet. And these kids, they're leading computer science and robotics clubs, and they're teaching other kids about programming.
What advice would you give to a woman studying computing or tech today?
I looked through your bios, and I have to say, you're all doing such great things and are already so far ahead of where I was when I was in high school. I don't think you really need my advice. So I'll just say something that my little sister has told me (and I hope this is appropriate) but sometimes, you just gotta approach things with the confidence of a white man.
May 6, 2026 3:02 AM
Some good things
A lot of things kind of feel like a mess right now--stress about all the things I need to do, my indecisiveness, not getting enough exercise, my sleeping schedule, my struggle to find a new apartment, having things be up in the air and incomplete when I just want to check a box and not have to keep worry about it...
But there are some good things
I feel good about what I'm eating. It's healthy, and I'm actually not stressing out about trying to figure out what meals to cook, which is the complete opposite of how I've been feeling for the past year, maybe even longer. I'm not making anything too crazy, but it's so satisfying to only ever have a small amount of ingredients in my kitchen and to use them up. I don't waste food!
I am back to practicing Teochew regularly. It's not quite every day, but I'm trying to make it a priority. And honestly, I look forward to it. I'm trying to keep it small and not give myself specific goals. Before I would try to add like five new words at a time to my site and to always post an update about it, and I realized that at some point it ended up just feeling like some daily quota that I needed to reach. And I am not about to put up with that emotionally manipulative duolingo learning tactic again.
Talking to people is good. I'm trying to make sure I keep doing that.
Today I was in a totally normal and uninteresting coffee shop, just getting some work done, when I noticed something about the music playing. It was pretty quiet, but it sounded...Cambodian. Like I'm brought back to memories of childhood, being at a Chinese restaurant during a wedding reception and people are dancing. I actually downloaded Shazam, but it was too late and the song ended and the music switched to something else. Oh well.
Ten minutes or so later, I'm listening and I'm like "no this totally sounds like a Cambodian song". I managed to Shazam it in time and it's "Old Pot Still Cooks Good Rice" by Ros Serey Sothea. (apparently it's a classic!) Why is this cafe playing Cambodian music?? I walked up to the (white) person working there, and they were playing songs from a playlist called "60's-70's asian psychedelia". "Yeah, I wanted to try something different, and I kinda dig it" Incredible.
May 4, 2026 2:13 AM
Spring
Why is it so COLD??!!
I was telling myself that it is MAY and I am NOT turning on the heat.
Well, I gave in.
March 1, 2026 5:26 PM
Go go go
Oh man, it's already March. Time flies when you're...sick I guess. Seriously, I caught some sort of cold this past week and after a few days I completely lost track of which day of the week it was. Usually that means you're not doing any work, but I feel like I've been working this whole time. I keep telling myself that I'm going to take a sick day, but it just feels like I'm taking a lot of "work-from-home" days.
I've just been go go go with my projects and with all the other paperwork and phone calls that I had to do. I logged about 80 hours of work on WTCS in February. I worked on it every single day. I recently watched this ConcernedApe video, and he talked about how he pushed really hard during the last 6 months preceding the launch of Stardew Valley. That's kind of how I feel about WTCS. We had a meeting, and the project manager asked me if it was possible to get the admin editing mode working in 5.5 weeks, and while I never promised him that I would do that, I said that it is possible and now I'm just like "I GOTTA GET THIS DONE"
Some people procrastinate. I feel like I'm the opposite. I see that I have a deadline and it eats at me until I get whatever I need to done. Speaking of deadlines, I did my taxes! And even though they were a bit more complicated than I'd like, I got it all done in one day.
The non-profit stuff is...progressing. I think. I will admit that I have moments where I start to panic a little inside and think "I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing-what-if-I'm-doing-everything-wrong" as I'm googling and reading lots of articles and reddit posts. But eventually I take a deep breath and remind myself that I'm doing the best I can.
I feel like I'm so close to getting rid of all the kitchen ingredients I'm trying to use up. Really, I just need to be done with my ground cloves. Everything else that I have, I know I can find a use for. But these cloves expired in 2017 and I can only make so much chicken shawarma. Once I'm done with the cloves I think that I'll officially say that my quest is over.
I bought a sweatshirt the other day. I want to buy more clothes that are cozy or make me feel good. I scheduled a haircut for later this week. I haven't had a nice, professional hair cut in like...8 years? But I think it's time for one.
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