I am a Meetup Junkie

I've become a Meetup Junkie. Every month I attend several meetups related to technology and food. I can't seem to get enough of following these interests with other like-minded individuals, in the real world.


The picture above is from Fight Club.


I primarily use Meetup to find interesting groups by city. I've used it in Chicago, Bangkok, San Francisco, and now Los Angeles. It's fantastic and addicting!

But for those who haven't used such a service, it may be somewhat scary-- especially if you are an introvert. What it initially amounts to is walking into a place and/or crowd, not knowing anyone or what kind of event it could be. I mean, yes, there will probably be a kind of theme/topic such as Ruby or Startups. But if you are walking in by yourself, without a friend or co-worker, you probably won't know anyone. And that can be a little intimidating. I still find it a little intimidating.

However, the lovely thing about meetups, is that a lot of people are walking in like that. Many want to be social. Many are passionate about the topic at hand, and want to talk about it. That's really the upshot of it. Of course that doesn't mean everyone is friendly and talkative. In fact there are meetups I've been meaning to remove off my schedule just because it didn't meet my expectation or it's simply not for me.



A collage of some of technology-based meetups I've attended from 2010 to present.

I've been using services such as Meetup and Eventbrite since 2009/2010, give or take a few months. I find these services fills a gap that exists between social networks and the real world. It's interesting how social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and G+ allow us to be "social" in the virtual sense, but rarely connect people in the real world. Evite had their chance at this and blew it.

Meetup.com stands above the rest. It doesn't have an entry-point where users need to have a social network to start using their service. Example-- Facebook requires you to have several friends to make the site useful. And even then, your connections may not have the same interests as you do, say about photography. Which leaves a gap between you, your interests, and the real world. Same things can be said about Twitter.

Anyhoo, if you do happen to see me at a meetup in your respective city, please do say hello!

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

The new year has come. Time to say goodbye the past year, and hello to the upcoming one. 2011 was an amazing year for me in terms of travel, photography, and trying out new things.

I spent four months living in Thailand up until the end of April. I was able to celebrate Thai new year, songkran, among other Thai/Chinese holidays. I traveled in September through November using the JetBlue Bluepass.

I got the chance to swing by Singapore for RedDotRubyConf. Once back in the states, I checked out a few more conventions (Chicago Code Camp, RailsConf, Wizard World, and BlizzCon to name a few). Also discovered a few more interesting ones here in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

On a more personal level, I was a best man at a friends wedding, and a groomsman in another. I finally moved out to California as I've always wanted to. I also bought a black 2012 Volkswagen Golf TDI. And I just got back from Hawaii, visiting all the islands and saw my first double rainbow.

So here's to a wonderful 2011, and an even brighter 2012!



UPDATE (Jan 1, 2012 9:19 PM): I've moved back to using Blogger! I've also merged my spong.org blog posts into this one. This blog will now consolidate my technology posts.

Some Thoughts on Traveling

In July of 2010, I quit my full time job as a software developer. I wanted to break away from the nine-to-five, travel a bit, have fun, and teach myself new things in the process. I was able to visit San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, New York City, Denver, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Pattaya.



In 2011, I kept traveling, I visited Hua Hin, Phuket, Phang Nga, Singapore, Las Vegas, and Baltimore, before returning to Chicago for a time period greater than one week. Chicago is where I am right now. It's been such a rush getting on and off a plane, knowing that there's a different upcoming destination, just hours away. I've actually grown to like being in airports.



I am reminded of a blog post I read before I left for Thailand, back in October of 2010: 20 Things I've Learned From Traveling Around the World for Three Years by Tim Ferriss. I think it very much holds true.

The ones I found to be very true:

People are generally good. Most of the people I've come across have been very friendly, helpful, and well mannered towards me. This was especially true once I distanced myself from densely populated cities. Honestly, there seems to be a correlation between population density and people being unhappy or grumpy.

People don’t hate Americans. Actually, many people are either jealous or curious about Americans in general. I think their exposure to American culture is through television, movies, and what kind of technologies sprout up from the US. I often got asked the question that starts with, "Is it true that in the US..." Which leads to the next point.

Americans don’t travel. I realized this point when I was in Singapore for a conference. I met so many people from so many different countries/continents (Germany, Malaysia, Vietnam, Phillipines, Austrailia, Portugal, etc). Pretty much all of them traveled a lot or were expats. As an American, I found that my knowledge of other cultures, customs, and general map-awareness to be weaker compared to theirs. Everyone knows so much about the United States, but most Americans doesn't really know much about the rest of the world. It made me want to buy a map of the world to hang up on my wall.

You don’t need a lot stuff. This is incredibly true. I remember a general rule/saying that was posted somewhere. It goes something like: Before you pack, lay out the clothes and money you want to bring. Pack half the clothes, and bring double the amount of money. Some of the clothes I brought, I never even used. It became clear that certain clothing were favorites to wear.

Traveling doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be expensive, but it certainly doesn't have to be. The American dollar is strong, and generally goes a long way for simple basic things in other parts of the world. I highly recommend staying away from tourist traps.

Culture matters. I would add that keeping an open mind matters too. I learned that not everyone was raised with American culture. It's unreasonable for them to quickly understand jokes, references, history, and other cultural nuances Americans are used to. It really helps to be patient, to listen, and know when to talk and be thoughtful on what to say.

English is becoming universal. At least in Thailand, very basic English is taught in school. Much like how I was taught Spanish, but I never used it so I have only the very bottom basics. But with more usage, I could probably relearn it again.
But I have one more that I would add to his list:

Social Technologies matter. I used Meetup.com, Facebook, and Twitter to meet so many interesting and passionate people. Often times, they were travelers or expats. Combined with the English language, this is a great means to communicate, learn, and reach out to a local communities/individuals.>



Next month I'm looking to do some more traveling with my JetBlue BluePass. I'm still learning new things too, such as becoming a more experienced Rails developer, a better photographer, and a decent writer/blogger. I do wish to rejoin the workforce, but only once I feel comfortable and confident in what I've learned.

Getting ready to Jet Blue with Blue Pass

Last year, in 2010, I took off with JetBlue with my All-You-Can-Jet (AYCJ) pass during the month of September/October. I visited Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver. Five cities! Friends, food, and fun! It was such a fantastic journey!


On my plane rides, I met many other jet-setters flying around the US. I remember having interesting conversations with them, and even on one flight, sitting next to a dog!

Sadly, they're not offering that pass this year. Instead, they're offering the Blue Pass. Unlimited travel for THREE months. I chose to go with the Long Beach Select option. The cities available to me to/from Long Beach are: Seatle, Portland, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Austin, and Chicago. So during the months of September, October, and November, I will be visiting some of these great cities.

My goal is still to make it out to California and find a great job and live a good life chasing down all my other dreams.


UPDATE (8/8/2011 6:44am): I bought my tickets last Thursdaay, August 4, and have yet to receive my confirmation email, which was supposed to arrive within 24-48 hours. I called JetBlue (1-800-Jet-Blue) yesterday (8/7/2011), and they told me that they are going to send me my confirmation email within 24 hours. They did give me a confirmation number over the phone, but I'll feel better once I get an actual confirmation email, hopefully today.


UPDATE (8/9/2011 12:53am): Still no confirmation email from JetBlue. What gives? I see the charge on my credit card. Why won't their system send me a confirmation email? I'll give them a call later on today.


UPDATE (8/16/2011 3:22am): Logged into my JetBlue, and saw that I have my Blue Pass. Awesome.

Purchased a Herman Miller Aeron Chair

A few weeks ago I purchased a Herman Miller Aeron chair from Home and Office Solutions up in Northbrook, Illinois. I've wanted an Aeron for the longest time, but just never felt comfortable spending a thousand dollars on an office chair. My seven-year old Ikea chair was falling apart and wasn't comfortable anymore. To be honest, it started to fall apart after two years. I really needed to get a new chair.

Not long ago I came across a blog post written by Joel Spolsky. From the post he mentions Herman Miller Aeron chairs for developers:

They are much more comfortable than cheap chairs. If you get the right size and adjust it properly, most people can sit in them all day long without feeling uncomfortable. The back and seat are made out of a kind of mesh that lets air flow so you don’t get sweaty. The ergonomics, especially of the newer models with lumbar support, are excellent.

They last longer than cheap chairs. We’ve been in business for six years and every Aeron is literally in mint condition: I challenge anyone to see the difference between the chairs we bought in 2000 and the chairs we bought three months ago. They easily last for ten years. The cheap chairs literally start falling apart after a matter of months. You’ll need at least four $100 chairs to last as long as an Aeron.  

So the bottom line is that an Aeron only really costs $500 more over ten years, or $50 a year. One dollar per week per programmer.

I think that blog post pushed me over to finally take the plunge and buy one. And so I did.

And I'm really happy I did. The chair is comfortable, sturdy, and encourages good posture with excellent support. It's a real joy to sit in this. At first I got a blue medium sized one. It is fine, but then I decided to give that one to my parents and get the large, as I am able to fold my legs comfortably in that size.

If you are thinking of getting a better chair because you sit in front of the computer all day long, I recommend you go try out a Herman Miller chair. I've looked at the Mirra line, which is slightly cheaper than Aeron, but I really felt more comfortable in the Aeron. I think you'll be glad you did.

Trip to Singapore

I went to Singapore over the weekend (April 21-25) for Red Dot Ruby Conf. It was my first time to Singapore. I didn't travel around too much, as I was in a conference for two full days (Friday and Saturday).

Some things I noticed about Singapore:

• No mosquitoes
• Hot and humid like Bangkok, but more pleasant
• Plenty of jay-walkers
• Seems the major things to do are shop and eat
• 3G is everywhere, generally very good
• Singlish takes some getting used to
• Singapore is full of folks from everywhere
• Super clean everywhere
• No traffic-- seems well managed

I ate out often at hawker centers.


Checked out Orchard Road.


Also had the chance to visit Hackerspace.


Full album here.

QingMing in Korat

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:

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:

• 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:

• 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.

The picture below sums up how there is a weakness in how the Thai language is very traditional.

(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:

• 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

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.

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.

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)

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:

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.

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:

• 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

These 3 sites pretty much sum up all that I like to share about myself. This is how I will tell the story of me. Pick whatever news/twitter feed you wish to consume information on me at. And of course in real time, you can follow me at @sunpech and @foodishappiness.

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:

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!

Pictures from February 2011 BKK Web Meetup

Here are the pictures from last night's BKK Web Meetup session on Ruby on Rails. The presentation was by Ches Martin. Our gracious host was Web Courses Bangkok. I like how everyone who brought a laptop, brought a Macbook, as you can see from the pictures.













Full album here.

Afterwards was the usual beer meetup at Singha Beer Park a few blocks away (towards Asok BTS). It was a fun tech talk among expats here in Bangkok. Some of the topics that came up was how to have more of these tech events in Bangkok, community building, and possibly finding sponsorship for food/prizes. For one thing, we'd love to see more of the local Thais show up. Although, most of the talks would probably be in English, which I'm guessing could be a struggle for those that do not understand English well.