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?

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.