I’ve got a backlog of posts piling up, but this one couldn’t wait. Last week, I visited Washington D.C. for the first time — not for tech, not for work, but for something far more special: my daughter. She won the Congressional Art Competition, which meant an invitation
It’s been over a month since my last post, and I’ve had a busy start at my new role with Viva Republica. You might recognize the company better by its flagship service, Toss—South Korea’s leading fintech platform, serving over 20 million monthly active users. If you’
Eight years. To be precise, it was seven years and ten months that I spent at Moloco. Last Friday marked my final day there. It became the longest tenure of my career—longer even than the time I spent at the company I once founded. Throughout my 28-year career, I
Last week, I attended GDC 2025 on my own dime—as an indie game dev wannabe—for the first time in 10 years. My last GDC was in 2015, where I happily met one of my best GDC sessions: Christy Marx’s “From Jem to CastleVille.” These days, I work
I have a deep appreciation for writing tools, and pens are at the top of that list. I love a well-made ballpoint pen—my favorite is the Jetstream Prime—but there’s always been one thing that bothers me: the rattle. Even with high-end precision pens like the Montblanc Meisterstück,
At the end of 2024, I decided to watch Shen Yun. As an Asian immigrant, the concept of the performance felt familiar—perhaps even a bit old-fashioned. However, their tagline, “China Before Communism,” always intrigued me. I remember seeing their commercials as far back as 2008, and I couldn’t
January is always a great time for a reset—not just for tidying up physical spaces but also for reflecting on life itself. So, I took the opportunity to make some changes. Cleaning Up LinkedIn Connections Lately, LinkedIn has started to feel more uncomfortable than useful. A few years ago,
It’s NYE(New Year’s Eve) in my time zone, and as I reflect, this year feels like it has been utterly surreal. I’m sure I’ve had my share of personal successes and failures, but honestly, I can barely recall them. It’s not that I’m
As 2024 winds down, we decided to follow a similar approach to our Thanksgiving trip: prioritizing peaceful rest over hectic schedules. So, we planned only a 4-night trip, which included two nights in Paso Robles and two in Solvang. Paso Robles has always been one of our favorite stopovers on
My family’s Thanksgiving tradition has often involved long-distance road trips. In past years, we’ve explored the Grand Canyon (2021) and the Great Canyon Loop (2022) and even visited relatives in Illinois (2023). This year, however, I decided it was time for a change. Instead of a grand adventure,
Last month, I became a legally 50-year-old engineer. It’s incredible how fast time flies—especially the past 4-5 years, which have felt like the blink of an eye; perhaps the pandemic is partly to blame for that. I didn’t manage to achieve one of my resolutions: writing an
For the past two years, Karl (the notorious San Francisco fog) had been the nemesis of our family during Fleet Week. I have so many fond memories of Fleet Week, and in 2022, I even bought premium box seats for the air show for the first time—but Karl dashed
politics
The presidential election is now just two weeks away, and I can’t believe I’m feeling the same fatigue I experienced four years ago. I made a few donations to the DNC in the past, and now their emails flood my inbox like a constant stream of DDoS or
giants
Right after the day that the Giants’ 2024 season ended, the team fired Farhan Zaidi and announced Buster Posey as the new president of baseball operations. I liked Farhan’s direction—he avoided unnecessary spending and focused on rebuilding the farm system. However, the result wasn't in the
giants
Today was the final Giants game of the 2024 season. As I’ve mentioned before, my Season Ticket Membership experience was fantastic. The last game ended in a 6-1 loss to St. Louis, closing the season with an 80-82 record—worse than last year. However, Birdsong’s impressive pitching gave
game
Finally, I think it's time to admit that Xbox has likely lost this console war. While I’ve enjoyed a few games on my Series X, like It Takes Two, it’s now clear that PlayStation has come out as the winner. However, for me personally, it wasn’
tech
In my memory, Steve Ballmer is forever linked to the famous "Developers" dance. There was a time when Microsoft stood as a faithful advocate for software developers, and Ballmer, drenched in sweat and passionately shouting "developers," was a hero of the late 1990s. However, his reputation
bayarea
As the baseball season goes down, football is coming back in full. However, I noticed that 49ers ticket prices have soared compared to last year, which made me hesitant to plan a trip to Levi's Stadium. Around that time, I discovered a promotion offering $4 tickets for Stanford
travel
Every third Friday of the month, my wife gets a day off from work (called Happy Friday). On July's Happy Friday, With our daughter away at summer camp for a month, we decided to head out for a short day trip to Point Lobos State Reserve. 0:00
tech
Seven years ago, I made my first PR (or, more accurately, a Diff at the time) at Moloco. It was about a week after I joined, and the task involved writing some Javascript code to parse and format CSV data in the browser. I felt a sense of accomplishment—it
bayarea
While looking for interesting local events, I stumbled upon an Instagram ad for Stanford Live. It was for "Spanish Favorites" by the SF Symphony, held at Frost Amphitheater on the Stanford University campus. Classical concerts aren’t usually my go-to, but the idea of experiencing a live performance
book
My latest read for the book club was "The Three-Body Problem," a 2008 novel by Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin. I had purchased the Korean translation about ten years ago but set it aside after only a few chapters, and it slipped from my memory. However, with
apple
Apple announced the new iPhone 16 today, which was a bit unusual since their annual event typically doesn’t happen on a Monday (usually Tuesday). Still, it was enjoyable to watch, with plenty of new features. We don't need groundbreaking "innovation" every year (and maybe no
travel
Last July, my daughter attended CSSSA (California State Summer School for the Arts), a 4-week program held at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) in Valencia, CA. We needed to drop her off on the opening day, and it was a 5-hour drive from home. I felt a same-day return
