I came across an artful and interesting game. Only takes 5 minutes:
http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/
I wished that I played it through once without reading the spoilers – but the experience is not diminished even though I know what will happen. The article (yes it has spoilers) where I originally read about Passage pretty much gave everything away if you can’t spare 5 minute (or you are having technical difficulties running it).
Doing my Masters in Computer Science has been an eye-opener.
I used to think that I was a hotshot programmer – there is nothing in the world that can’t be solved with a little coding magic. Boy, was I in for a reality check: pretty much every single course in the MSc program pushed me beyond my intellectual comfort level. Don’t even get me started about the theory intensive classes – I got smashed like a punching bag (and I liked it).
Was it worth it? Yes of course. I’d rather be able to acknowledge my lack of knowledge in a particular domain, than to be totally oblivious to its existence. The upside of a Masters is now clear to me – I am able to imagine projects, products and ideas far beyond where my programming skills can take me.
The downside? My threshold for doing boring things has lowered significantly. I really can’t do McProgramming jobs any more. Well, I could if I need the job to put food on the table but I would rather not have to.
Besides this very public blog, I have also been keeping private journal entries. In these private entries, I am able to really look back at 2007 and ask where the hell all the time went.
2007 has really been a slacker year for me, in terms of career and work. On the other hand, it has been personally productive: I think I have figured out what I want to be doing 5, 10, 20 years from now. For the longest time, I have been unable to personally make any long term plans – not sure why, just lack of perspective I suppose: it is like being short so you end up not being able to see too far down the path.
And for those of you not in the know, I have met someone wonderful. I would say that meeting her has been one of the most life-changing things in my life. (Hi honey! I love you!) It has certainly made 2007 a year to remember.
On the whole, I am feeling pretty awesome these days. So awesome that I don’t even feel like making any new year resolutions. The fact of the matter is, we can really make resolutions any time, any where we feel like. When I was reading 4-Hour Workweek, it was back in June and I was visiting my sister in LA – it sure didn’t stop me from doing the exercise from the first part of the book, which was making a list of 6 month and 12 month goals. And yes: getting a blog up was one of those 6 month goals. Sure, I didn’t finish off the entire list but I am certainly 100% better than moping around wondering what I should do with my life.
Looking back at my private journal entries also seem to reveal an interesting pattern. They seem to nearly neatly fall into three categories:
Sometimes, all three will appear in a single day’s entry. I guess that I really have been making resolutions every time I write a “future looking” entry.
Okay I change my mind – I would like to make one new year’s resolution: I would like to write more entries for alfredpang.com! I would like to thank those of you who have personally told me that they find my writings interesting. It is very encouraging and I hope to have much, much more for you in 2008.
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