Like Last Year, I Have a Team to Root for in the SuperBowl

Since Green Bay made it to the Super Bowl this year, this makes my decision very easy. :D

On the other hand, I just realized today that I really don't have much love (like ever) for the Chicago Bears. This is quite puzzling to me. I mean, supposedly, Chicago is the city that I've known/have connection for longest ever since I moved to the States: it was my port of entry when I first moved here; I studied 2 years of middle school in a Chicago suburb before moving back to HK to continue my high school; and then again for 12th grade before I head to college in Indiana; another year after college before I started working in Madison... Yet I was quite indifferent to all the Chicago-based sports team (I was never a sports guy).

My current theory is that probably because I knew nothing about football during those time. Actually the football that I grew up with, you actually kick the ball (hey, I grew up in a British colony). It wasn't until college that I started watching "American football" (courtesy of my dorm-mates/roommates). But of course by then, the team that I cared most about was our college football team. And since I went to Purdue, the NFL team to root for would be the Indianapolis Colts.

So here's my NFL team allegiance at the moment:
1. Any team that Drew Brees plays. Purely for sentimental reasons. Did I not mention that I learn the rules of football by watching him play at Purdue? I also remembered rushing down the field (twice) in the year he led us to the Rose Bowl - once against Michigan or Ohio State and the other against IU (Great memories - but surprising my football watching roommates didn't go to any game that season even though they have the season ticket).
2. Packers - I do live in Wisconsin now
3. Indy - I did go to a school in Indiana for 5.5 years after all

There's tequila in it? Even Better

Ever since the cupcake place opened in Hilldale, it's always hard for me to not stop in after a Saturday/Sunday lunch at HK Wok to pick up a few. The problem? They're not cheap at $3 apiece. However, since I haven't had them for a while (as I was not in the States last month), I figured I'll pick up a few today and bring them to work for snacking purpose.

Baker: So how many of them would you like?
Me: Um... 3
Baker: Alright. Are they for here or to go.
Me: To go
Baker: So you said you want the Strawberry Margarita, right?
Me: Yes
Baker: There's tequila in it, you know?
Me: Even better.

Definitely looking forward to it. On the other hand, I am still waiting to try their lemon one.

Vacation Planning for this Year

This past vacation, a number of people were surprised that I still haven't took my sabbatical yet (since I've been telling them about it for like a couple years). Well, people shouldn't be surprised. After all, it's me and it usually takes forever for me to decide on anything.

Anyway, the sabbatical is probably going to happen this year. One main reason is that I've been working at the same company for 7+ years, and that means my 2nd sabbatical opportunity would be coming up. Need to use up the first one first. :p

So the option right now is either July to Europe or December to Australia. December in Aus has a certain appeal - summer in December! And that would also mean that my annual trip back home would like be in July. So two summer vacation in a year - that's definitely a big plus.

There will be a gathering in Chicago in August with buddies from college. We'll be celebrating a cutie's 1 year old birthday as well as meeting another new baby for the first time. Since it's only in Chicago, chances are that I probably don't have too much planning to do for that.

Another benefit of taking my sabbatical in December is that I can use my flex holiday (or is it floating holiday) on the Friday after Thanksgiving. That would give me a long weekend in November. Since my parents most likely won't be in the States this year during that time, I probably will be free to travel. Current plan - Orlando. Earlier today it was Hawaii, but Orlando might be a better fit right now.

So all these trips are back-loaded: July, August, November and December. Now I just need to find something after Feb 17th. :)

P.S. And this makes post #3 this year. Hey I'm not too far from meeting my New Year resolution!

Blog

Looking back, I really didn't blog that much last year - a mere 3 posts for the whole year. Hopefully this year will be different and there will be more posts (shouldn't be too difficult considering that this is already post #2 for this year).

I really think that i need a quicker method of blogging. There were numerous occasions where I had something that I want to blog about, but when I finally have the time to sit in front of a computer and log into Blogger, I no longer what to write about whatever I wanted to blog about earlier. Maybe I should switch over to twitter... Mwahahahaha...

Anyway, let me make blogging more often one of this year's resolution. Let see how long before I give up. :P

新一年就挑戰!?!?

邊本星座運程書批我今年工作上會有轉變？ 如果有咁批嘅話就中了 （雖然唔係轉工咁大件事）。

A curve ball is definitely thrown my way this past Friday and I'll need some time to think about this. 感覺上會係一個幾大嘅轉變, 尤其係要放低做咗咁多年嘅 product。與止同時，我亦唔可以否認佢係一個非常吸引我嘅 proposition ﹣ 尤其係當依家做緊嘅野基本上上咗軌道，人手上亦唔似以前得我一個人事咁。

難以取捨嘅選擇，等我再慢慢諗諗...

P.S. 睇得明嘅朋友唔好係非死不可留 comments... 基本上咁大篇都係中文係有原因嘅... XD

Team grows by another 33%

Today, another developer joined the team. Looking back, I gotta admit how much the team has grown in the past couple years - and the drastic difference from when I started 6.5 years ago.

Thinking back, it was quite funny - Erica and I being the newly hired QA/developer, plus Michael our main TS. That's pretty much our whole team (neither Erica and Michael is 100%, and I wasn't suppose to be full time on this team as well). I still remember calling our team one of the smallest team (if not *the* smallest team) in the whole company. Deadlines are especially *fun* of course, since we always have to scramble for PQA resources. I am still puzzled how we manage to pull several releases with such level of resources.... hahaha...

When Brian joined in 2006, which made things a bit better. Unfortunately with the departure of Konphused and the moving of our team to another division, we were back to square one with me being the only developer again. At the same time, things really got hectic as the dashboard was starting to take off. Fortunately, Ru joined the team late 2008/early 2009 - but it was still a crazy dev cycle.

The golden triangle was formed mid-2009 when Chris joined. After 6 years, we finally have enough people so our projects are "self sufficient" in terms of PQA. Well... Almost. Now that we have another member, that should give us a bit more wiggle room and our future project plans a bit smoother.

I just hope that we don't scare him away.

Overall, It was a Great Memorial Day Weekend

Bars on Friday night
Met some new friends on Saturday
Caught up with old friends on Sunday
And of course being a "workaholic", I did throw in a couple hours of work here and there as well. =P

Just like the title said, overall it was a pretty good weekend. Oh - and I got my hair dyed. It's been a while since I last had my hair colored, I decided to change things up a bit - also an early present for myself. Right now, it's brown with some hint of red in it. I wasn't too sure how red it will turn out when i picked the color, so I opted for the safer route. Next time, I think I should try the one that has a bit more red in it. (And if I could convince my stylist to move up to Madison - and then it will be blue!) I don't think anyone from work (at least my "current" team) have seen the last "copper" color, so this should be something new to them. The cost wasn't as high as I originally thought, so I probably will keep my hair colored in the foreseeable future.

Morning Meetings

I had a 830 meeting this morning... and it really has been a while since the last time I had a meeting earlier than 9. Those who work with me on a regular basis know that I am definitely not a morning person (thank goodness work hour is not too strict here). As a matter of fact, meetings at 6 or 7pm is much more preferable to me, but I digress.

The meeting actually wasn't too bad - other than the fact that it added some small projects/investigations on my plate. My main problem with coming to work early is that I don't get to leave early. It seems like regardless of when I come into work, I end up leaving around 730 - 8 (830 today). Even with an hour of lunch break, and taking a sanity break, that's still a pretty long work day when it's not around deadlines.

Hopefully the rest of the week will be better, but somehow I have the feeling that I won't get much of my own stuff done. :P

Is it too early to plan for vacation... in December?

Since it's been all work so far this year (see previous post), I am really looking forward to a nice, long, uninterrupted, disconnected (from work that is) vacation. I don't think i can skip going back home (HK) - after all, that is where i do my main shopping, but perhaps I will venture out a bit this year and pack a 3-4 day trip to some other places. I'll see how that go.

On the other hand, my sabbatical most likely will not happen this year. For those who don't know, my company offers a 4-weeks sabbatical leave for every 5-years of service (Sometimes, i can't imagine having worked here, the same company, for 5+ years already. Many college/high-schools friends have switched jobs, even multiple times. In certain sense, I think I'm quite lucky that I found a company that matched quite well with me. Oh, back to sabbatical). They would also pay for airfare (include a companion) and up to 20-days (or 21... forgot the exact number) of lodging cost (i think it's 150/day). England is a front-runner for me at the moment, but not 100% sure yet.

I could also break the 4-wk into two 2-wk trips (taken 18-months apart). So that's another question i have to think about. Should i take it all at once, or two mini-trips instead? Um...

Finally another blog entry in 2+ months

Well, blogging definitely took a back seat so far this year. This is like, the 3rd/4th post of the year.

First off, let's blog about work - since the work/lift balance scale is heaviliy tilted toward the work side. Things have been extremely busy in the previous months. Endless requests + Limited resources = Lots of OTs. Hopefully as this development cycles in wrapping up (still got couple more issues to fix), and new ones won't start until mid-summer/fall (please, no "surprise" in between), things should start to get better (finger-crossed).

Another exciting news from work is having a new developer on the team. For a loooooong time, I've been the only full-time developer on my product (and i do claim the title of THE XXXXXX developer in the company... hahaha). With the re-org late last year, my team had to give up the other half-time developer, but luckily got a full-time in exchange (can't imagine developing on my own for this release - well, actually I could, but i don't want to think about it). That brought the number up to 2. Still means I had to scramble for resources for each of our projects - which always causes headaches and frustrations.

On May 4th, another developer joined our team. I think the whole was pretty excited. As for me, not having to worry about finding additional resources is always a plus (well, my TL actually should be happier - since she wouldn't have to hear me complaining... XD). I could definitely see projects flow a lot smoother and quicker in the next cycle. Might be a headache for QA; but for now R&D is happy. :D