Since I've been in Thailand, I've spent a lot more of my time with family and learning more about Thai/Chinese culture. This was the first time I participated in QingMing Festival. The festival was on March 27, 2011 in Korat, Thailand where my ancestors were buried.
My cousin lighting firecrackers, which so happens to be my first youTube upload:
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Thoughts from the March BKK Web Meetup
The BKK Web Meetup last night was pretty awesome. It was the biggest turnout I've seen yet, and it was also very interactive. Plenty of discussion, questions, and even stories came from the attendees.
The topic was: Let's talk about hiring and training developers. Benjamin Scherrey was the presenter. Some bullet points that I took away:
Full album here.
Overall, not too different from what many of my Chicago user groups I attended talk about. Software development has a lot of arts in it over science-- at least at the professional real world sense (leaving out research/academia). With that, from my experience, there can be a lot of burn-out from the amount of time a developer puts in front of the computer programming. Developers need technical challenges over being a drone that codes horribly day-in and day-out. Benjamin is right, there needs to be a technical path given other than to grow into a manager that never codes again.
In the community of developers I hang out with in Chicago, there's the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship, which tries to tackle some of the issues. But in my honest opinion, that can be a bit much-- in which case I prefer: Solver's Manifesto-- which I relate to a bit more. And then there's also: The Motherfucking Manifesto For Programming, Motherfuckers. Enough said.
The topic was: Let's talk about hiring and training developers. Benjamin Scherrey was the presenter. Some bullet points that I took away:
- There are some cultural barriers to understand in hiring a Thai/Asian software developer.
- There are some cultural barriers dealing with Thai clients.
- Geek culture trumps Asian culture
- Geeks are geeks, make them happy by giving them challenges.
- Give developers a technical career path other than being manager that doesn't code.
- Give developers whatever title they want.
- Don't use recruiters to hire talent.
- Be Agile (see Agile Software Development).
- Work culture matters.
- The technology industry in Thailand is improving.
- Thailand has technical talent, just need to know how to reach out to them.
Full album here.
Overall, not too different from what many of my Chicago user groups I attended talk about. Software development has a lot of arts in it over science-- at least at the professional real world sense (leaving out research/academia). With that, from my experience, there can be a lot of burn-out from the amount of time a developer puts in front of the computer programming. Developers need technical challenges over being a drone that codes horribly day-in and day-out. Benjamin is right, there needs to be a technical path given other than to grow into a manager that never codes again.
In the community of developers I hang out with in Chicago, there's the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship, which tries to tackle some of the issues. But in my honest opinion, that can be a bit much-- in which case I prefer: Solver's Manifesto-- which I relate to a bit more. And then there's also: The Motherfucking Manifesto For Programming, Motherfuckers. Enough said.
But the points about the cultural barriers is spot on. As a Thai-American that's been living in Thailand for nearly five months now, I still go through a lot of culture shock that I don't think should be in the professional workplace.
Some that I would like to briefly point out:
Some that I would like to briefly point out:
- Young people must always respect and listen to older generation. This isn't a bad thing, but the older generation may not be that experienced or even correct, so there is a time to not just listen, but to speak up against the senior.
- Thai people tend to take criticisms personally.
- Problems get raised very late, instead of immediately or at the most appropriate time.
- Shyness to speak up and share ideas.
(Credit to my friend Amanda for taking a photo of this. Source is from BK Magazine)
I short, I think a solution to improving this is through community and better communication. Thai culture should get some injection of other ideas and cultures from outside of Thailand. But to keep this post short, I will perhaps blog about that some other time.
Further readings I recommend:
Further readings I recommend:
- Why Can't Programmers.. Program? by Jeff Atwood (Coding Horror)
- Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit--And You Should Too (a story I brought up during the meetup)
- Some tidbits from Joel Spolsky's talk last night on recruiting programmers
- The Programmer's Bill of Rights by Jeff Atwood (Coding Horror)
- The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code by Joel Spolsky
Friday, March 18, 2011
Photos of Girls and Asahi Fireworks
On March 5, 2011, my friend and I got tickets to the Asahi Fireworks show. Obviously the fireworks show is at night, so during the day I took my camera out to play and test it out since I hadn't taken too many pictures with it lately.
What I didn't know was that there was a photo shoot and interviews of girls going on at Siam Paragon. I happened to be at the right place at the right time. Some pictures of pretty girls:
Full album of photoshoot here.
This was the first time I used my camera (Canon Rebel XT) to take pictures of fireworks. I was in bulb mode for the most part. The part that annoyed me was that the security there didn't allow me to set up my tripod in the VVIP (very very important person) section. How is that VVIP then? I kept moving to different areas and they kept saying that I wasn't allowed to set up my tripod. So I pretty much relied on my arms in bulb mode....
Anyway, after they let in people in from the outside, and more than half way through the show, I set up my tripod. At this point I was seated in an ocean of people, not like they could get to anyone who set up a tripod. I ended up switching to manual mode from bulb mode because I was just getting too much smoke in my pictures.
I think the problem was that I was seated not too far from a building/bridge that was well lit, so a lot of light was hitting the smoke already. There was a photographer's area, but it was far far away and as I heard it, very crowded. But it was definitely a better area to take photos of fireworks as they were far from the building.
Here are some photos of my first try taking pictures of fireworks:
Full album of fireworks here.
What I didn't know was that there was a photo shoot and interviews of girls going on at Siam Paragon. I happened to be at the right place at the right time. Some pictures of pretty girls:
Full album of photoshoot here.
This was the first time I used my camera (Canon Rebel XT) to take pictures of fireworks. I was in bulb mode for the most part. The part that annoyed me was that the security there didn't allow me to set up my tripod in the VVIP (very very important person) section. How is that VVIP then? I kept moving to different areas and they kept saying that I wasn't allowed to set up my tripod. So I pretty much relied on my arms in bulb mode....
Anyway, after they let in people in from the outside, and more than half way through the show, I set up my tripod. At this point I was seated in an ocean of people, not like they could get to anyone who set up a tripod. I ended up switching to manual mode from bulb mode because I was just getting too much smoke in my pictures.
I think the problem was that I was seated not too far from a building/bridge that was well lit, so a lot of light was hitting the smoke already. There was a photographer's area, but it was far far away and as I heard it, very crowded. But it was definitely a better area to take photos of fireworks as they were far from the building.
Here are some photos of my first try taking pictures of fireworks:
Full album of fireworks here.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Pictures from Red Shirt January Rally
Near where I was staying, Ratchaprasong, the Red Shirts were having a lot of rallies-- right outside of Central World shopping mall. Since I was on my way to meet up with a friend for lunch there, I brought my camera to snap some photos.
Full album here.
Disclaimer: In no way am I associated with any color shirts. I took these pictures to share what I saw.
Full album here.
Disclaimer: In no way am I associated with any color shirts. I took these pictures to share what I saw.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
My Story from 2010 (Part 2 of 2)
This is part 2 of 2 of my story from 2010. You can view part 1 at: My Story from 2010 (Part 1 of 2)
I also went to do loy-krathong for a few nights. I have some nice shots of the sky lanterns out in a field. Took a lot of pictures on these festivities and parade.
So where I last left off, I was leaving Chicago, destination: Thailand. Below, the bags I packed at O'hare International Airport.
I was flying Korea Air for the first time. On my way to Bangkok, Thailand, I had a layover at S. Korea. Some pictures I took at the airport:
I was flying Korea Air for the first time. On my way to Bangkok, Thailand, I had a layover at S. Korea. Some pictures I took at the airport:
Below I have pictures I took in Bangkok in November and December 2010. Many nights out with friends, family at restaurants, Siam Paragon, Central World, and Bangkok's first F1 demo at Democracy Monument.
Some pictures in Chiang Mai with my family. We had tum-boon (merit-making) ceremony at my grandmother's house. It was a nice gathering of my mom's family.
Also went to a park, a Night Safari (zoo), and flower garden with my mom and her nursing school friends. I took a ton of pictures of the animals on the safari.
I also went to do loy-krathong for a few nights. I have some nice shots of the sky lanterns out in a field. Took a lot of pictures on these festivities and parade.
This was my first time in Bangkok's Yaowarat (the street that Chinatown is on). I ate at a ton of places and the weather, best of all, wasn't too hot.
As maybe you can tell, I cancelled my return trip scheduled for December 8, 2010. I was having such a blast in Thailand that I felt that I couldn't leave just yet. Korean Air said that I have one year to use my return trip, and that I can schedule it anytime as long as a seat was available.
What's keeping me here is not just food and family as you might have guessed. I've met some wonderful people here through random encounters at meetings, user groups, twitter, and I just really want to keep learning new things and pushing myself in positive directions for my life.
This concludes this two part blog series of my story from 2010.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
My Story from 2010 (Part 1 of 2)
Just want to give a quick overview of my life since mid 2010 to present, early 2011. This is part 1 of 2.
For several years I was a software developer/consultant at a few companies and organizations. I mostly used .Net and Microsoft technologies as my tools for solving problems. In July of 2010, I decided to quit my 9-5 job and try new things out. I bought a Macbook Pro and decided that I wanted to get away from .Net and Windows for a bit and just think differently. My goal was to pick up some Ruby/Rails, do some Android development, and get started with Git-- all the while doing some traveling and photography before I made my way out to California.
Shortly after quitting, I made my way to San Diego with my sisters for the San Diego Comic Con. We made plans for doing the Comic Con long ago since Fall of 2009. Afterward the con, we visited Blizzard Entertainment on our way up to Los Angeles. I have blog posts on these at:
Afterwards, I came across JetBlue's All-You-Can-Jet (AYCJ) package for traveling in September 2010. I took advantage of this and decided to visit family and friends all around the US. I visited the following cities: Boston, New York City, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It was an amazing traveling adventure for me as everyone I visited were able to put a roof over my head. I met other JetBlue travelers on my flights, many of them too were visiting cities all across America.
I went to Boston to visit my sister and my undergraduate school, Boston University (BU). I actually have a blog post of my visit to the CS lab where I used to work and basically live many study and programming nights.
I basically ate at a lot of places, walked around BU campus, and took photos everywhere I walked (MIT and Harvard University). Oh, I also went sailing in the Charles river for the first time.
I only had a layover in New York City for a few hours before my visit to Denver, Colorado. I flew into JFK airport, paid $50 for the cab to drive me to Times Square, and for 30 minutes ran around taking pictures, before taking a cab back to JFK (yet another $50). I had absolutely no time to meet with friends or even eat in Manhattan.
This picture set was my first visit to San Francisco this AYCJ trip (third trip to SF overall in my life).
Sorry, no formal pictures from Los Angeles. Had to fly into Long Beach, as JetBlue didn't have flights directly into LA. I went on a massive eating tour in LA, so you'll have to check out my LA posts in at FoodIsHappiness.
Flew back up to SF after spending a few days in LA. Pictures below:
After my September Jet-setting, in early October I packed my stuff in my Chicago apartment and moved out and prepared for my trip to Thailand. My goal at this point was to visit family and see what life was like out there.
I left Chicago on November 7, 2010. My return flight was set for December 8, 2010.
To be continued in Part 2....
For several years I was a software developer/consultant at a few companies and organizations. I mostly used .Net and Microsoft technologies as my tools for solving problems. In July of 2010, I decided to quit my 9-5 job and try new things out. I bought a Macbook Pro and decided that I wanted to get away from .Net and Windows for a bit and just think differently. My goal was to pick up some Ruby/Rails, do some Android development, and get started with Git-- all the while doing some traveling and photography before I made my way out to California.
Shortly after quitting, I made my way to San Diego with my sisters for the San Diego Comic Con. We made plans for doing the Comic Con long ago since Fall of 2009. Afterward the con, we visited Blizzard Entertainment on our way up to Los Angeles. I have blog posts on these at:
- San Diego Comic Con Pictures 2010 (5 sets of photo albums in this post)
- My Visit to Blizzard Entertainment HQ
Afterwards, I came across JetBlue's All-You-Can-Jet (AYCJ) package for traveling in September 2010. I took advantage of this and decided to visit family and friends all around the US. I visited the following cities: Boston, New York City, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It was an amazing traveling adventure for me as everyone I visited were able to put a roof over my head. I met other JetBlue travelers on my flights, many of them too were visiting cities all across America.
I went to Boston to visit my sister and my undergraduate school, Boston University (BU). I actually have a blog post of my visit to the CS lab where I used to work and basically live many study and programming nights.
- Boston Universitys CS lab in 2001 and 2010 (I compare photos of lab from 2001 and 2010)
I basically ate at a lot of places, walked around BU campus, and took photos everywhere I walked (MIT and Harvard University). Oh, I also went sailing in the Charles river for the first time.
I only had a layover in New York City for a few hours before my visit to Denver, Colorado. I flew into JFK airport, paid $50 for the cab to drive me to Times Square, and for 30 minutes ran around taking pictures, before taking a cab back to JFK (yet another $50). I had absolutely no time to meet with friends or even eat in Manhattan.
Pictures from Denver where I visited an old friend and his family. I really had a time walking up/down mountains as the city is already 1 mile above sea level, so I was often short of breath.
This picture set was my first visit to San Francisco this AYCJ trip (third trip to SF overall in my life).
Sorry, no formal pictures from Los Angeles. Had to fly into Long Beach, as JetBlue didn't have flights directly into LA. I went on a massive eating tour in LA, so you'll have to check out my LA posts in at FoodIsHappiness.
Flew back up to SF after spending a few days in LA. Pictures below:
After my September Jet-setting, in early October I packed my stuff in my Chicago apartment and moved out and prepared for my trip to Thailand. My goal at this point was to visit family and see what life was like out there.
I left Chicago on November 7, 2010. My return flight was set for December 8, 2010.
To be continued in Part 2....
A blog should tell a story
After going through some very old blog posts (I've been blogging since 1999), I was reminded of why I started blogging back then. Simply put: I liked to share my thoughts and interests with an audience. Of course back then it was simply with family, friends, and random people who stumbled upon my blog. This was a time before Twitter, Facebook, and even Google. Back then it was mostly just Slashdot that was my biggest influence as to how I shared myself. Asian Avenue, AOL, and Geocities were all dying out, at least amongst my friends.
Back then I believe I had a better audience interaction because of the following two reasons:
- No one else really was blogging, so my blog was what my friends and family read because it was the kind of Facebook of the time.
- I was telling a story, of me.
The second reason is what I would like to talk about briefly. I want to get back into being a better blogger. To do that, I need to do a better job of telling a story about me. I want readers of my posts to be able to connect with me as a real person. As much as I enjoy facebook-statusing and tweeting, it never seems to be enough to get a picture of who the tweeter is. I like how it's short/concise and in real-time, but 140 characters is barely enough to form a paragraph in English. The most common is simply a link to something more interesting to read in full.
Maybe I'm just old school.
I've set up the following sites to help me become a better blogger:
- This site - My personal blog about me, my adventures, photography, books, and all-around anything that isn't about technology and food.
- FoodIsHappiness.com - My website/blog about my food adventures.
- Spong.org - My blog on technology, software, and various tech user groups I meet with.
Monday, March 14, 2011
TEDxBKK Pictures
A few weeks back, on March 3 2011, I attended TEDxBKK over at TCDC at the top floor at Emporium in Bangkok, Thailand. You can also follow them on twitter at @tedxbkk. Overall it was a good turnout, but I wasn't too enthusiastic about most of the talks though. The one that stuck out the most for me was David Christian's talk in the Knowledge Revolution session.
Here are the pictures:
Here are the pictures:
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Food Is Happiness
I started a new blog/website over at foodishappiness.com. I exported all my food posts from this site as well as from bestburgerintown.blogspot.com (which I've abandoned) and imported them into the new site. It's just something new I wanted to try out, to see if I could generate content from my food/eating passion. I'm still on an "eating tour" of Bangkok, Thailand so to speak.
I know many say that blogs are dead. I certainly hope not. As much as I like Twitter, I just don't think 140 characters is enough to express many things.
So read up on my food adventures, please turn to Food Is Happiness site or follow @foodishappiness on the Twitter. This site is still my personal blog, which will be less on food, more on photography, travel, and maybe some books. Happy eating!
I know many say that blogs are dead. I certainly hope not. As much as I like Twitter, I just don't think 140 characters is enough to express many things.
So read up on my food adventures, please turn to Food Is Happiness site or follow @foodishappiness on the Twitter. This site is still my personal blog, which will be less on food, more on photography, travel, and maybe some books. Happy eating!
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