It's been a while that I've written an actual blog post here. Most of my posts have been microblog updates on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and since I use ping.fm, some of them may have shown up on my blog. To be frank, I really do not blog as much as I used to, I just find microblogging much easier and faster than having to think about what exactly I should write (like writing a paper or article, which takes much more thought and time). But anyways, I thought I should write at least one blog post here on the last day of 2010, New Year's Eve in Beijing.
As I reflect on this year, I've done so much and I'm very grateful that everything has been successful and very good. Workwise, research wise and family wise. As everybody knows or now knows, I moved to Beijing to work with Nokia Research Center about 2.5 years ago in July 2008 right before the Beijing Olympics. I'm now adjusted to living here, accustomed to the food (mind you the Beijing style of food is not much to my liking, I love Cantonese food much better and love going back to Guangzhou and Hong Kong :)). My wife and I have met wonderful new friends along the way, both Chinese and foreign, and life here is just great.
Research wise, you can see my list of research achievements with publications, workshops and presentation from my web page. My Chinese Mandarin is much improved as much of my Chinese friends here in Beijing would say, and now I can carry on a meeting with my teammates completely in Chinese. Writing, on the other hand, is still not as good, but at least now I can start to write SMS messages in Chinese (surprising a lot of people, but it's nice to know pinyin so you can write).
I'm still busy as always, organizing monthly dinners in Beijing for colleagues and friends, and organizing research seminars in the Nokia Research Center Beijing office, as well as workshops at conferences, reviewing papers, as well as writing papers, giving presentations, and leading mobile social networking projects in NRC Beijing. I even wrote a mobile social networking article (English but translated into Chinese) for NRC Beijing's Sina blog. I'm particular proud of Nokia Find & Connect, a project which I started and am leading, there is a video of this here.
On the personal side, my wife and I have three rabbits at home and two female rabbits gave birth to 20 baby rabbits! It was the first time that we raised rabbits from birth, but it was very special indeed. Not sure that we would do this again though. Pictures of the rabbits can be seen on my Facebook page.
Despite being busy, one has to always remember that family comes first, so I always try to find activities and trips for my wife and I to go to. My wife means the world to me and I love her so much. As well, I am regularly participate and sometime lead the bible studies at my Catholic Church here in Beijing, as well as am the lector.
As for New Year's resolutions, I have three. One, to regularly do exercise and get back to the gym (which I've done on and off). Two, sleep earlier, I right now sleep way too late and get too little sleep. Three, to start a family.
So, all in all, it has been a wonderful 2010 year. I hope 2010 has been good to you as well. Cheers to 2010 and let's welcome 2011 with an even success, prosperity, happiness and most important peace in this world.
You can catch up with me more frequently by adding me to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
God bless you all for 2011.
Showing posts with label New Year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Year. Show all posts
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Reflections on 2008 and Happy New Year!
It's that time of the year. Time to reflect on the year that's about to be passed and look towards the new year. This is what I said for New Year's last year. So what were the most memorable moments in 2008? Personally for me, this year really was a year of ups and downs, but I'm glad to say the year is going to end up on a high note. First of all, the new year started for me and wife by spending the New Year in Hong Kong with my cousins at Time's Square in Causeway Bay. Then afterwards we had our wedding banquet for my wife's family and friends in Guangzhou. It has been a while since I spent my new year's away from home in Toronto.
Then, it was job search time so I was very busy in January throughout April with job interviews for faculty and industry research positions. In January, Bill Gates gave his last keynote speech at CES, so this was memorable for the tech industry. On January 17, Apple released the world's thinnest laptop, the MacBook Air. My father was admitted to a senior nursing home towards the end of December last year, so it was a tough time for me and my family to see my father deteriorate in his health (he had Alzheimers disease, Parkinson's disease and diabetes). Then on March 19, the inevitable happened which shocked our entire family, my father passed away. This was just so sudden that it was surreal, I couldn't believe he was gone. And I had to go to a job interview right after, which made it really difficult. However, I felt my father's spirit in me and with God, family and friends, they all helped me guide through that difficult time.
On the upside, I passed my PhD departmental exam on April 24 which was a significant milestone for me on road to completion of my PhD. In May, there was the Mesh conference in Toronto on social media and Web 2.0 which was really great and met lots of cool people in the industry and learned about what new technologies are out there. Towards the end of May, DGP turned 40 years old, the lab at U of T that started making an impact in graphics and video in the industry and academia.
Then Apple splashed up again with their new iPhone 3G in June which was probably the tech highlight of the year, and also the last time that Steve Jobs will give a keynote. Bill Gates had his last day at Microsoft on June 27 which was a momentous event in the computer industry. My conference trip report from Hypertext 2007 conference was published in the ACM SIGWEB newsletter in July.
The next great moment of this year for me was my acceptance of my full time research job at Nokia Research Center in Beijing. My wife and I moved on July 26 and this was a big change for me but the next chapter in my life. I had the wonderful opportunity to attend several events at the Beijing 2008 Olympics of which the most memorable was getting to be at the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. I even got the chance to watch the Olympic torch relay for the first time in my life under scorching heat (sure I got a headache but it was worth it!)
In September, Google announced their new browser to add to the browser wars, Google Chrome. Another great joyous moment in 2008 was on September 29 when my wife and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary which was so special to us. Then another great moment happened at my work at Nokia Research Center, I was accepted to give a talk in Helsinki, Finland about my research at Nokia Research Center Beijing in Mobile Web 2.0. It was my first time to Finland and I had a great time meeting Nokia people! My paper in the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia journal was also published in October, which was a great achievement for me and my PhD research.
Then the ultimate event on November 3, which was 5 years in the making, I became a doctor! I passed my PhD defense! A very momentous and joyous event in my PhD and life for sure. Another exciting tech event was at Nokia World when Nokia announced their new mobile phone which competes with iPhone and ups the bar for mobile social networking, the N97. On December 8, the computer industry celebrated the 40th anniversary of the invention of the mouse publicly shown by Doug Englebart. Also in December, Nokia Research Center Beijing turned 10 years and I was glad to be a part of the celebration.
And so now it is December 31, 2008. As you can see a lot of things have happened this year, which I'm so glad I made a record on my blog. I've certainly been blessed by God for this year and I look forward to the new year 2009. As this year comes to a close, I wish everyone a Happy New Year and may 2009 give you peace, happiness, blessings, and success! Like the video says, Happy New Year!
Happy New Year 2009
Then, it was job search time so I was very busy in January throughout April with job interviews for faculty and industry research positions. In January, Bill Gates gave his last keynote speech at CES, so this was memorable for the tech industry. On January 17, Apple released the world's thinnest laptop, the MacBook Air. My father was admitted to a senior nursing home towards the end of December last year, so it was a tough time for me and my family to see my father deteriorate in his health (he had Alzheimers disease, Parkinson's disease and diabetes). Then on March 19, the inevitable happened which shocked our entire family, my father passed away. This was just so sudden that it was surreal, I couldn't believe he was gone. And I had to go to a job interview right after, which made it really difficult. However, I felt my father's spirit in me and with God, family and friends, they all helped me guide through that difficult time.
On the upside, I passed my PhD departmental exam on April 24 which was a significant milestone for me on road to completion of my PhD. In May, there was the Mesh conference in Toronto on social media and Web 2.0 which was really great and met lots of cool people in the industry and learned about what new technologies are out there. Towards the end of May, DGP turned 40 years old, the lab at U of T that started making an impact in graphics and video in the industry and academia.
Then Apple splashed up again with their new iPhone 3G in June which was probably the tech highlight of the year, and also the last time that Steve Jobs will give a keynote. Bill Gates had his last day at Microsoft on June 27 which was a momentous event in the computer industry. My conference trip report from Hypertext 2007 conference was published in the ACM SIGWEB newsletter in July.
The next great moment of this year for me was my acceptance of my full time research job at Nokia Research Center in Beijing. My wife and I moved on July 26 and this was a big change for me but the next chapter in my life. I had the wonderful opportunity to attend several events at the Beijing 2008 Olympics of which the most memorable was getting to be at the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. I even got the chance to watch the Olympic torch relay for the first time in my life under scorching heat (sure I got a headache but it was worth it!)
In September, Google announced their new browser to add to the browser wars, Google Chrome. Another great joyous moment in 2008 was on September 29 when my wife and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary which was so special to us. Then another great moment happened at my work at Nokia Research Center, I was accepted to give a talk in Helsinki, Finland about my research at Nokia Research Center Beijing in Mobile Web 2.0. It was my first time to Finland and I had a great time meeting Nokia people! My paper in the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia journal was also published in October, which was a great achievement for me and my PhD research.
Then the ultimate event on November 3, which was 5 years in the making, I became a doctor! I passed my PhD defense! A very momentous and joyous event in my PhD and life for sure. Another exciting tech event was at Nokia World when Nokia announced their new mobile phone which competes with iPhone and ups the bar for mobile social networking, the N97. On December 8, the computer industry celebrated the 40th anniversary of the invention of the mouse publicly shown by Doug Englebart. Also in December, Nokia Research Center Beijing turned 10 years and I was glad to be a part of the celebration.
And so now it is December 31, 2008. As you can see a lot of things have happened this year, which I'm so glad I made a record on my blog. I've certainly been blessed by God for this year and I look forward to the new year 2009. As this year comes to a close, I wish everyone a Happy New Year and may 2009 give you peace, happiness, blessings, and success! Like the video says, Happy New Year!
Happy New Year 2009
Monday, January 08, 2007
Welcome to a new year 2007!
This is my first blog post for the new year in 2007! I had a great holidays as you can see I didn't blog much over the holidays! A well deserved and well rested break. Lots of eating, shopping and hanging out with family and friends. A time to unwind and recharge for this term which will be another busy one. I will be teaching a course called The How and Why of Computing to first year undergraduates not in Computer Science, so I'm preparing the lecture notes right now as we speak! It should be an interesting course, I've never really taught a large class before, so it should be fun. Also, since I passed the depth oral, I have to now start to work on my PhD thesis proposal as well. So, still another busy term, I'm always busy but it keeps me preoccupied and happy. And I enjoy it, that's the most important thing is enjoying your work.
To everybody reading my blog, hope that 2007 brings you happiness, peace, and continued success!
On Technorati: New Year, 2007
To everybody reading my blog, hope that 2007 brings you happiness, peace, and continued success!
On Technorati: New Year, 2007
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