Reflection and goals kind of day. I like New Years and resolutions. It's a reminder to stop and reflect on the year past, and then to re-sync priorities and goals. Last year, I co-led a Goals Workshop putting the process into clear steps. And last year, I set a goal that required every detail to be just right that I didn't think was possible, but I followed the process and hoped for the best. Today as I look back at the process... it's pretty amazing. My step ladder is filled with lots of contributing little steps...and when I look at all the little steps summed together, it was a LOT.
* Consistent friend accountability
* Greater goal, greater purpose - for the next generation of women
* Networking - Athena, WIT, SWE, reaching out and connecting with former colleagues
* Toastmasters - practice public speaking skills under stress
* LinkedIn activity - motivation, seeking opportunities
* Consistent Technical Studying
* Practice, Practice, and Practice
* Learning new skill - Python
* Interviewing as much as possible
I'm proud of the process - the ups and downs, disappointment, learning, and never stopping. My ideal day meditation from last year is now a reality. And I'm excited to set a path toward new goals! Wishing everyone an early Happy New Years. Set your intentions, set your steps, don't stop.
New Years Resolution 2017 achieved!!! Back in Jan this year, I committed to 365 logged running miles for 2017. It didn't matter the frequency.. whether it was 1 mile/day or 365 miles in one day.. I just needed to run 365 miles by the end of 2017. I opted to keep accountable by focusing on 1 mile/day and to keep a log of the miles monthly.
Certain days and months, I went over the 1 mile/day.. Jan, Feb, and March. If I felt like I had extra time or energy, I would run extra miles to "cash" it for rainy days. Other times when life was overwhelming, such as August/Sept/October when I put 110% of my effort into job hunting, those months lapsed in running miles. However, now towards the end of the year, I'm happy to have achieved 365 miles for 2017 on the day after Thanksgiving.. Nov 24th.
In fact, an ex co-worker took on this challenge as well... but he's a runner, and he achieved the mileage in June/July time frame. A way that I connect with my ex-coworkers are through Fitbit Challenges, and it's nice to know that there are other OCD crazies like me. I'm definitely missing my old work environment, my former co-workers as I am still adjusting to my "new life" as I call it. But we still get together on occasion for Happy hour, Fitbit challenges, or messaging.
This week we had a work-week hustle. I've retained 1st place, logging in 163,309 steps in a 5-day period. It required running about 10 miles a day which I would do in the wee hours (4-6am) of the morning before work, and late into the night after work (9-11pm).
Here's a photo I took to show evidence of such endeavors. Me and my slow-man companion late one evening after putting the kids to bed.
Week 5... and new beginnings are forming... A departure to what I have been doing the past 15+ years... I will be moving into the realm of satellite communications, high-power, RF (Radio Frequency), wireless technology!!
ViaSat-1 Satellite
I have been offered a position in test development at ViaSat Inc. They just launched their ViaSat-2 satellite recently, and yes, their simple mission is essentially global domination.. to provide global communication and access. Imagine the impact it can have, for everyone, everywhere, 3rd world countries, to have access to information and knowledge, be self-sufficient to learn and improve livelihood.
Not only commercial communications, but also military and government.. to keep troops and law enforcement with better means of remote and stable communication access under critical situations (thoughts are with Vegas right now).
The past several months... actually, heck.. the past year has been filled with up and down challenges with the uncertainties of the job. I enjoyed very much what I was working on, seeing my career change and grow with more responsibilities the past several years, and facing a lot of work challenges. While the career growth was great, the company was not. I worked for my team, but was disheartened by a general callousness of a company focused solely on profits for the higher ups.
ViaSat-2 Satellite
ViaSat-2 recently launched on June, 2017, with the world's highest capacity communications satellite.
I was inspired by friends and former colleagues that found new frontiers in biomedical tech companies, in companies with philanthropic missions, making advancements for the benefit of mankind. I'm hopeful for a new company, a new direction where my background can still be utilized and I can place my contributions towards a beneficial cause, global communications and support for STEM education.
My how time seems fast and yet slow.. and vice versa. Everything has come to a halt, except for main priority.. finding a jooob. I finally took a break. It has been over a month since I last went climbing, and oh, how I miss thee. I'm 10lbs down of muscle now due to all the studying and non-activity. But the gym, is like an old familiar friend. I like it like this.. empty, quiet, and spacious... and all for myself.
Job hunting is surprisingly slow. There are not too many places in SD that has a need for high-speed signal integrity test experts. In the mean time, a lot of the SerDes design and test teams in the Bay Area have been swooped up by the likes of Apple, AMD, and Intel. Not surprising, those are the forefront of hardware technology companies.. and all in Silicon Valley.
I'm taking my chances of making an industry switch, but it comes with a mixed bag... I'm going from being at the fore front of new innovative technology that I have been a pioneer and expertise since it's early conception, to starting over. With it, I need to sell my qualifications to an industry of perspective managers that have absolutely no knowledge to the complexities and challenges of SerDes, nor my value in it.
This week, I had the joy of being invited to speak as a guest lecturer to several engineering classes at a local high school. Truthfully, it was a great change of pace and perspective from the last few weeks. Going to a high school reminded me of how far I've come since then, and how much more needs to be done to encourage the youth of the next generation, especially the women. There is a 50/50 split between male and female during the first 2 years of high school. By the time senior year rolls around, the numbers drop down to 10%... which is about the ratio I went to college with.
In my career, the engineers that have inspired me, have been the women engineers I have met along the way... not because they were women, but because they were the ones I've encountered that possess a greater passion, greater work ethic, and a fierceness in their profession that I don't see anywhere else. I found out recently, my first female mentor which left a lasting impression, passed away 3 years ago to lung cancer... a great woman.. a great engineer.. I still carry with me and follow through with the advice she gave me 18 years ago.
A student asked me a question.. "What do you like about engineering?".. and it's because it's challenging. It's not easy, it is hard.. but the reward of solving not just any problem, but a hard problem that you wrack your brain over and go crazy.. there's a satisfaction and pride that can't be earned in any other way.
I'm struggling right now. I admit. But it's just like any other hard problem I've had to deal with before.. I need to process it, and figure out ways to solve my problem.. one step at a time.
Week 3 of the unemployed.. another week, another coffee shop. Time passes quick.. maybe even quicker now...
The ever growing Philz Coffee has finally made it's way to SoCal and expanding.
I've survived one on-site interview now. I say survived because the first one is always beyond nerve wracking... after all, it's been over 12+ years since I have had to go "sell myself" again. I have full confidence in my abilities, but not so much confidence in "selling" it for interviews. I've never been good at marketing.
With engineering, there's always so much background to remember. There are theories I haven't touched since college, even if it's just the basics. This week I'm reviewing the questions that I missed on the interview.. such as the one below.
Identify the configuration of this circuit. What does it do? And, what are the voltage are V1 and V2.
For sure I will not forget this one again. It's actually a very simple question after the fact when I reviewed specifically NPN transistor theory.
It has been a relief that the ax has fallen, that the past is really now the past and I work towards the future. One of my "traits" is OCD... and once that gets going, it can be both a blessing or a curse. I tend to see it as a blessing.. after all, it's what got me to Everest Base Camp and to endure 13 miles of 105+ degrees heat of the Spartan Race. This trait of mine... is my method for achievement. It may be slow and arduous, but surely I will make it.
In the course of 2 weeks, I have spent on average 10 hours a day "working" towards my new future. I have 4 sessions of 2-3 hours each, where I review engineering theories, practice presentation style, white boarding different topics, drill myself on theories with flash cards, read various articles on similar topics to obtain different viewpoints, watch YouTube videos, and follow up on job hunting leads. I estimate I have put in over 200+ hours now of engineering study this month.
My kids have been on their own, wild and crazy, eating whatever quick fix dinner I can dig out of the freezer, and totally taking advantage of the fact that I'm letting them watch TV and do whatever they want as long as they leave me alone.
My new "office". Ryan help set up a whiteboard for me.
Occasionally I'll get a visit from my new co-worker..
Another day, a different place of work. I take advantage of studying and "working" everywhere and anywhere I can. On this morning while running errands that required waiting, I reviewed different op amp configurations on Starbucks napkin.
Taking up the corner office location at a local Panera...
Yes.. Starbucks does seem to be a theme. It's a good place to go while waiting for things. Free wi-fi is always helpful.
And I can't forget to leave out my other new co-worker, Rose. I cannot thank Trader Joes enough for coming out with this inexpensive bubbly, which I meet on occasion at the end of a long work week. (I limit the drinking to the end of the week.)
The Sun has finally set... All endings start a new beginning, a new chapter. Endings are never easy, even ones that are trivial in the grand scheme of life. It's still a jumble of memories, accomplishments, growth, familiarity, confidence,..etc.. a whole bunch of factors that impact more than just cognizant processing. Well... as is... it is time to bide adieu to a decade's worth of work...
I worked on all of these processors and more, testchips and processors prior 2010, in the Sun era, pre-Oracle. Some required late nights and long hours, sleeping in the office with a sleeping bag so I didn't have to drive home to only drive back the next morning.
It has been tremendous privilege to have been a part of innovation and development of the Sparc processors. Thanks for the memories!
Okay, I am making feeble attempts to catch up with the blog. So continuing from where I left off in May.
One of the things I like about my work is that everyone puts in great effort to make "Bring Your Kid to Work Day" a pretty fun and learning experience for the kids. This year was Emilia's first year that she was old enough to attend. Even so, the lessons were still beyond her comprehension, but nonetheless, a good start and exposure to the fun world of engineering. This was the first year I also got to tour around with Emilia and check out all the different presentations from the various labs and groups.
The first stop was with my group, in the electronics lab, which started with a brief introduction on what the group does with examples of different components and stages of a product test cycle.
Note the things on the table. Kids got to touch it and relate to it pretty much as the insides of a fancy computer.
The demonstration was focused on sound waves, showing how different tones/pitches of sound could be converted to an electrical frequency and quantified on an oscilloscope. Then kids got the chance to play around with using a mic and watching their voice conversions. Our group was pretty mellow.. but I heard the later groups, with the older kids, were just taking turns screaming and laughing into the mic.
Sound Waves
Next stop was a visit to the Optics Lab, where some engineers from the Fiber Optics team put on a demo and discussion about light spectrum and diffraction.
I thought this demo was pretty fun. They started off discussing the concept of light and how our eyes interpret what we see based on the light and the medium the light passes through. They also had different shaped prisms, convex, concave, etc and laser beams, where kids had to figure out which way the laser beam would bend base on the shape of the prism they were using.
They ended with an interactive experiment where the kids had to look above the water and try to "spear" a fish (aka a coin) at the bottom of the water tank. The idea was that the light through the medium of water distorts the perceived location of our fishing rod (aka stick) and the location of the fish.
Light Diffraction Through Water
Next up was the Physics Lab. Here a group that works on failure analysis of boards and materials gave a demonstration about a specific instrument that measures spectral density of objects. They had a few items of "white powder"... sugar, corn starch, salt, etc. .. and without touching or smelling, just by looking, the kids were to try to find the one that was sugar. Kids tried to guess, and the engineers would put the white powder on the instrument and measure the spectral density to determine what it was.
Throughout most of these demos, Emilia was the silent one... sometimes doodling on her notebook instead of paying attention.
To provide incentive, I said I would give her a piece of candy every time she asked or answered a question. Low and behold, her hand started going up!
Second half of the FA group's demo, was Bob talking about another instrument, a scanning electron microscope (SEM), that scans a focused electron beam over a board surface area to create an image of surface topography and composition which helps with board failure analysis and debug.
That's already quite a bit of demos.. but there are two more. Next one is still part of the FA/Mechanical group. Here the kids got a preview of a very specific instrument called the Romer Arm and basic idea of how it works. The instrument itself is pretty neat. Once coordinates are provided, you move a laser scanner of the arm over an object, and it translates the topographical image based on recorded distance away from initial calibrated position. You can do it again from a different angle, and the software can combine the various scans so one can have a dimensional image that can be rotated, flipped, etc.
And last of the engineering demos, was provided by the the Cryptography team about password safety and hacking algorithms. Kids got a chance to learn how to create harder to break passwords and then they had to create a password based on the concepts they learned from the demo, and then the Cryptography team was going to attempt to break it. If any passwords were left unbroken in 2 weeks, the kid would win a prize. We thought Emilia had a good chance.. she came up with an AWESOME password. But alas, she did not win.
Total of 5 different demos from various engineer groups. Pretty awesome for the engineers and teams to set aside some time to do this for the kids. Not only were there demos, there as also simply fun engineering experiments for the kids to witness.
Behold... the liquid nitrogen rolling out...
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
And concurrently, someone had a great idea to do an experiment of the liquid nitrogen smoke bomb. In fact, the engineers here spent the week prior refining the quantities of liquid nitrogen to scalding, hot water to create just the right about of explosion and smoke for a giant smoke bomb effect. It concluded the "Bring Your Kid To Work Day" with a giant bang! =)
Nitrogen Smoke Bomb
Where was Emilia in all of this kid chaos? She decided not to be one of the kids to run in and try to put their hands on liquid nitrogen with hot water.. instead she stayed by the ice cream table, patiently waiting for the perfect liquid nitrogen ice cream.
And she was rewarded with a yummy giant scoop! That's my girl!
The lab at work was shut down due to some electrical re-wiring, so it meant a work group team building/outing event. There were suggestions of wind-surfing, rock climbing, paint balling.. but golf won out. I have never golfed before, so it was a good time to try it out.
In my work group, only the bossman golfs and the rest of us are newbies. He gave us a few tips to start with on the "swing form", and I always keep my PTs advice in the back of my mind "every movement should begin from the core". From there, we played 9 holes on an executive course with the regular size holes. Initially we wanted the big holes, but something about them not being available at that time.
So hitting the ball consistently is definitely harder than it looks and I can see how this aspect of golf requires skill... repetition to form consistent muscle memory. We had 2 golf carts to cart 4 of us around, though I wanted more of a workout so I would occasionally run. All in all, it was a fun game that is plenty social and relaxing. At times it felt a little slow, but then again, you have a bunch of engineers that take forever to do practice swings and attempt to analyze the projectile trajectory of their ball. I'm more of get into position and just hit the darn thing - think less but focus on a few key form factors, then swing.
Not bad.. ball going in the direction of the flag/hole!
Using the irons and hitting the ball in the general direction of the flag was my favorite part. The putting portion where you have to sink it into the hole was my least favorite part. It took the team ~2 hours to complete the 9 holes, and we played a modified game of the 3 newbies against the bossman. Bossman won.
Overall my impression of golf is that it is a fun, challenging, skilled, social game, though.. to me, not quite a sport. After 2 hours of play, I was not at all sore the next day. Physical exertion level was minimal. Anyhow, being out in the sun, relaxing is much better than all day in the lab!
Today is a typical routine day.. kids go to nanny or daycare, I go to work, and Ryan does.. all sorts of things. While life is pretty routine and consistent, I find adventures and fun are now in the details that go on each day.
Such as, while I'm at work, Liam goes on an outing to the museum with the nanny and friends in tow. And the photos I get from the nanny are great! I love seeing what goes on in Liam's day.
Today my not-so-typical day at work was teaching kids a little about computer engineering. Apparently it's "Take Your Kids to Work Day". My kiddies are not old enough yet, but I look forward to taking them to this event in the future years.
True, I have little patience for teaching, but I'm not so bad in lesson planning! My group's activity was deciphering secret messages using a very basic ABC to Binary encoder/decoder. They could verify the results through software we created to do the translation, which also hooked up to a scope so the kids could see the electrical signal.
Some kids got it right away.. some kids needed some help.. and some kids just could care less. But all in all, our last group of kids did not want to leave and they started to create their own secret encoded messages.
It has been wayyyyy too long from updating this blog and keeping in touch with friends/family. We have, as you probably figured, been overly swamped with lots of work and never enough time to fully balance and get as much done as we'd like. Balancing life has not been happening and it's been frustration, lots of compromising, crying and tears, and sacrificing certain aspects to find an equilibrium medium point for Ryan, the kiddies, and I. Are we there yet? Nope, but I think we're starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Ryan's been very very busy dual managing his work work and trying to progress with the deck, while picking up slack for my work schedule. While my work is not demanding of an 80-hour work week anymore, the workload and project schedules are aggressive and high-profiled. Definitely stress in getting things done under a finite amount of time that I can be at work, and also exciting to see the ultimate end result of what I work on.
Yup. The world's fastest microprocessor. It's great to see the Sun logo on Oracle's new announcement and the look ahead to hardware development and growth.
So while work is super busy in a good kind of way, the work toll definitely has taken an effect on the kiddies the past 1-2 months as well as been much more difficult in managing and compromising Ryan's and my schedule. Remember a post back when I was talking about the difficulties of disciplining in a constructive way? While there has been a few occurrences of successful disciple, there has been more failures than not. For a while, Emilia and I were spiraling down a not so good path. The kids (and parents) with tantrums that you see on the TV show, Nanny 911 or SuperNanny...kicking, screaming, hitting, biting, a danger to themselves while in fits of rage... the parents completely exhausted and cannot re-gain control... yup. That was us. February and March were tough months. I feel very very fortunate that our nanny is really Mary Poppins in disguise, and that Ryan is the most patient husband/dad.
Long story short, we have had a breakthrough with understanding what was going on and working towards better relationship and discipline with Emilia and Liam. At first I thought it was bad influences from other kids at school. Ryan thought maybe it was jealousy toward Liam for the more attention Liam gets from me. Or that the two kids are playing off of each other's tantrums. Those may play a little factor, by the main thing is that Emilia is a 3-year old that is figuring out the world she lives in, and regardless of what goes on, she needs us to stop the busy and provide her quality attention and a sense of her own security of where she fits and belongs. Quality time with just mom or dad have been key, and extra time spent in re-enforcing positive behaviors, even in exaggerated praises, have also helped. Also, I had to recognize that it was not just the kids. It was me too. I needed to find a way so that I can maintain strict and patient disciplining... which is hard to do when you're stressed, tired, and frustrated. Eating healthy, getting sleep, and getting daily exercise ends up being more crucial when I have no time for those. So, regardless of how crazy it is, I try to get those in every day. And if I skip a day, then I make sure I do extra the next day. It may come in the form of doing a quick set of max burpees in the women's shower room at work, or a power "rest" at my desk.
Disciplining is slowly, but surely not so violent now and a sense of well-being is slowly coming around. =P For Liam, he is learning through observation and developing his own sense of independence. So it is also key that he sees positive and consistent disciplining with Emilia. Yup. Slowly, but surely.
So.... it's been way too long.. but I have a back long of the good (and some bad and ugly) of happenings these past two months to post up on the blog. Hopefully I can get to a consistent roll again on here. =)
I am sneaking in a blog break on day 3 of lab confinement with a photo from Emilia's birthday weekend. She loved her three birthday cakes for her 3-year birthday. Two chocolate cakes at her request, and this last cake... Emilia and I had a girls' morning of shopping, eating French pastries, and picking up a pretty, strawberry cream cake.
She gave me a big girl hug and said "I wuv you very much mama" before she went to bed that night. =)
Work crazies update:
Day 1: 17 hours of crazy stress. Lots of tense moments. My part works! yah!
Day 2 was 14 hours of breaking off into groups and analyzing different designs and function.
Day 3 so far is 14 hours and still going (with exception of this break). Today is buggy and tedious. Sooo tedious that I caved to the junk food. In fact, I saw everyone eating the junk food in the lab at one point or another. (Boss stocked the middle of the lab with piles of cookies, candy, nut bars, chips.. and even a cooler full of beers.)
Big boss has informed us that ETA of the next high-profile project (which I've been doing critical development work on for the past 6+ months) is THIS SUNDAY. Depending on how my portion of it goes, it will either be a big success or a big fail that will be my responsibility. Indeed, my work responsibilities have grown in difficulty and ownership over the few years making this time around seem even more anxious. No pressure. =P From prior experience, I am expecting 80 hour work weeks of lab confinement. Probably some heated stressed moments and arguments. Hopefully some high fives and little successes...
I have my office stocked with healthy food and LOTS of coffee beans. The work fridge freezer is stocked with my frozen veggies. A spare set of running shoes is hiding in my cabinet. (Last time I recall needing to go for a run around the parking lot at 2am with pent up energy.) A Costco run will most definitely happen as I whip up massive amounts of food to freeze that will feed Ryan and the kiddies for the next few weeks. Sleeping bag and pillow are coming with me to the lab this time around. At least I didn't miss out on Emilia's 3rd birthday.
It seems to me that time is on super lighting speed. Our baby girl somewhere along the way grew out of being a newborn baby into a new toddler. Right when Ryan and I think we have the parenting thing figured out, she learns something new and stumps us once again. While we highlight some of the fun and tender moments on this blog, we fail to completely capture all the details of the good and the not-so-good along the way. As life goes, there are ups and downs and plenty of challenges. Challenges with learning how to grow as parents with Em because every step of the way is still all new. Challenges with how to balance life with having only a finite amount of time with work, responsibilities, quality time with family, maintaining contact with friends and family, exercise (barely existent), and all the in-between.
Life is much much different now than 2 years ago (pre-Em) and I remember my own perspectives back then as I tried to envision life with a husband and a baby girl. I laugh now because it has been not even close to what I imagined being settled and having a family would be like. Let's just say, climbing Mt. Everest was fun, adventurous, breath-taking... but I can't even bring a fair comparison to any adventures I've experienced with the fun and adventures we have now with Em as we see a little of us in that strong and developing personality of hers. Every day holds something new and unexpected. I see a little Ryan in her as she tries to climb on EVERYTHING... or when she takes the avocados and arranges them in a neat line across the floor. I see a little bit of myself when she adamantly and stubbornly refuses to eat the blended kale porridge mix I make her.. or when she has that spark in her eye which I know means something has caught her curiosity. It is pretty neat to look and find similarities with our personalities and our little girl.
So, long story short.. our life is, and will continue to be non-stop adjustment. As Ryan also blogged a few posts earlier, our home has required just as much of his attention lately. He's been hard at work every chance he gets at maintaining it and trying to make it more kid friendly. The avocado harvest came and went and along with it, more maintenance for Ryan.
Surprisingly, I would have thought my priority on family would take precedence, and subsequently expect that my ability and drive for work would diminish. Not so, in fact, quite the opposite. I have a renewed focus with work, because work now matters even more as it will provide for my children's future. So, when not focused on family, the other portion of my time has been focused on work. I won't go into details, but work has definitely been a challenge trying to get where I want to be career-wise in this downturned economy. It makes me understand and appreciate how hard my parents worked, and also understand that as full-time working parents, we sacrifice being able to spend more time with our kids, to try to give our kids more for their future. It is a fine balance.
So... all in all, Ryan, Emilia, and I have all been keeping busy in our own ways. I guess it's just called Life. =)
The next BIG adjustment is right around the corner with the arrival of Emilia's little brother, our baby boy. Again, I can't imagine how things will be, but we're looking forward to his arrival. Here's our sneak peak at the little guy from a few weeks ago:
I grew up as an only child, and my parents taught me that in my culture, cousins are just like brothers and sisters, and family always is fa...
About
Ryan and Connie officially began our journey in life together (wedded bliss) on August 1, 2009. This blog chronicles our journey through whatever life throws at us.
On February 27, 2010, we welcomed a new addition to the family: Emilia Ying-Zhi. She tipped the scales at 7 lbs 2 oz, and measured in at 19-3/4".
Liam Noboru joined the family on October 20, 2011. His fighting weight is 7 lbs 4 oz with a length of 19-1/2".
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