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Tuesday, March 07, 2017

I am in Vienna

I am in Vienna attending the Human-Robot Interaction conference. Just wondering if any of my readers are from Vienna or are in Vienna right now?

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

New year new beginning and new resolutions

Man, I can't believe it has been almost four years since I last posted any blogs. Time really flies!

First let me quickly summarize what I have been doing for the last three years and 8 months:
  • The first year or so was eventful and also a year of harvest. During this year: 
    • I turned 40.
    • I also had two surgeries (never had surgeries before, correlation or causation?).
    • I received two Black Belts, one in Taekwondo, and one in Hapkido.
    • I successfully defended my thesis and officially became Permanently Head Damaged! It is worth mentioning that I actually completed and got my dissertation approved on New Years Eve inside a hotel right next to Disneyland. Then as a celebration, I took my kids to Disneyland that night and enjoyed the new year count down party and watched the new year fireworks show.
    • I found a job I love after many rounds of traveling and interviews.
    • I bought a bigger house and moved in.
  • Then the next three years or so, I focused on building two "intelligent" entities:
    • Sky, the intelligent smart home assistant for my work, and
    • Philip, my dumb personal home butler. Philip is really just my house, and also has a second name Jane. The name Philip came from a great Chinese Sci-Fi/Wuxia novel by Maoni, which I am also translating from Chinese into English. The name Jane came from Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game Series.
And because I was so busy with life and the above, I didn't really
  • Translate, or 
  • Blog, or
  • Sleep much.
But since now that Sky and Philip are both in relatively better shapes, I am hoping to be able to get back to the two things I enjoy very much: translate and blog. As it is the Chinese New Year right now, I figured that I'll make a list of my new year resolutions:
  • I will try to sleep more and have better sleep quality. This is my top priority.
  • I'd like to get back into routine translating. After all, it is another one of my life goal: to win (kind of) the Nebula Award with my translation.
  • I'd like to blog more. Blog about technology, AI, machine learning, robots, etc. In the past I tried to write too much and keep the bar high for each blog. This time I am going to just go with the flow. Hopefully a short summary of my thoughts on things I read can still be good reading resources for others and inspire them to be creative. If you haven't noticed, Lannyland is the land of imagination and creativity.
  • I'd like to read more on latest advancements on AI and machine learning. Hopefully this also results in more blogging.
  • I'd like to also get back into routine exercising. I am a black belt! I should stay a black belt!
  • I'd like to also find some time to play the piano once a while. 
So Happy Chinese New Year to your all, wish you all a very productive new year, and wish myself good luck adhering to my new year resolutions!!






It's never too late to follow your passion and love.