My Random Thoughts

What are your hobbies?

I have a wide variety of hobbies! Chief among them is gaming; this isn't exclusive to video gaming, I enjoy all sorts of gaming. Whether it is a pick-up game of basketball or ultimate frisbee, chess or poker, Halo or Super Smash Bros, I enjoy then all! I am a competitor by heart, and while I do like to win, I find most enjoyment in the act of trying your best against someone else's best.

In high school and college, I was heavily involved in sports teams. I played football, basketball, volleyball, and fencing. In college, due to the more competitive nature of sports teams, I dedicated myself to volleyball. I find it exhilarating to work with your closest comrades in order to outsmart and outplay the opponents. Being in a team, we cover each other's weaknesses and promote each other's strengths, and I strongly believe a great team is more than the sum of each individual's talent.

In my spare time, I have gaming sessions with my friends. We play all sorts of tabletop games, card games, or video games. My favorite tabletop games include Settlers of Catan, Avalon, Codenames, and Taboo. For card games, I enjoy Chinese classic games like Big 2 or Level Up. As for video games, I play competitive fighting games like Street Fighter or Super Smash Bros. When not with friends, I delve into many other kinds of games too, like first-person shooters, real-time strategy games, turn-based rougelike games, or general role-playing games.

I also like to travel. Visiting new countries, seeing new sights, experiencing new cultures, and tasting new foods, it is always a great experience. I have already been to many parts of the world, including China, Japan, Italy, Greece, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Australia, there are still more destinations I wish to visit. I love eating food as well, and every country has their own specialties and unique flavors. The world truly is huge, and full of new experiences!

Why did you choose to build a website?

Well, I thought it would be a fun project. Being a long time fan of technology, I grew up with the advent and proliferation of the internet. Early in the internet's history, there were two services which were huge for a time before dying off: xanga and myspace. Of course, I had one of those where I would throw whatever I thought about online. The subsequent invention of instant messaging, then services like Facebook and Twitter made hobby websites needlessly difficult and inefficient to maintain.

Well as it turns out, even nowadays most professionals choose another medium of self-advertisement. Linkedin is almost ubiquitous in the professional world. Personal websites are now usually the domain of artists or design professionals who wish to show off their work. As I am not a design professional, I wanted a website for the sole reason of wanting to familiarize myself with the process of owning and maintaining a website. As I do not have very much disposable income, the website currently is mostly hosted on free services; this may or may not change in the future. Being internet literate is important because the internet can only grow bigger in the future. Companies are making everything connected to the web these days, so I believe this skill is as important as any other. I love a challenge, and I found it quite fun to configure everything to work. While I may not be very good at it, and that this website is kind of basic, it is still something fun and neat.

How often do you post updates?

As this is not really a professional blog, I don't have regular periods where I will post new content. However, if there are interesting events, I will definitely write about them when I have time.