projects | blog
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.
January 4, 2026 7:49 PM
Happy New Year
Man, 2025 was absolutely nothing like I expected it to be. I was looking forward to a year of relaxing, a year of doing things for me. It didn't really feel that way. And I want to get my thoughts out, so buckle up and click on Continue Reading if you want to see a recap of my past year, and what I'm hoping for the year to come.
November 8, 2025 3:02 PM
purge
I was at dinner with some friends, and I was telling them about how I'm trying to use up every ingredient in my kitchen. It seems like I've been trying to do this for the past two years, but now I'm being really diligent about not buying anything that will last more than a couple of weeks.
So you're trying to Marie Kondo your kitchen?
I'm trying to Marie Kondo my life.
Some people tend to hoard things, but I have the opposite problem: I just want to get rid of my possessions. Every time I obtain something new, I worry about how I'm going to have to dispose of it one day. It just feels bad to put something in the trash because I feel so wasteful. So I'm trying to donate as much as possible. I had a bunch of board games, and I asked my family if anyone wanted them, and most of them were claimed within minutes. I recently dropped off a bunch of clothes at a clothing swap, and it made me so happy to see people pick up my clothes and take them. That's the best outcome, knowing that someone else wants the things I want to get rid of. I even jumped on the opportunity to give away my couch to someone because they were interested and willing to pick it up themselves.
I want to own only enough so I can fit everything in my car. And while I'm pretty sure I have much less stuff than the average person, it's still kind of hard for me to get rid of something I've owned for years that I never use today.
Like my foam PlayStation DDR pads. I've had these since middle school. The last time I touched them was during the start of the pandemic and after someone told me I was making their ceiling shake, I figured I should stop trying to play on them. So they've just been sitting in my apartment, and I haven't had the heart to throw them away.
Well, I finally did decide that it was time to get rid of them, and then Dan had the idea of turning them into costumes. I thought it was a great idea, but I'm not crafty. Luckily I have a friend who is very crafty and he offered to costume-ify the DDR pads. It was pretty incredible and I'm so glad the pads were briefly given a new life.
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