Beethoven In Trance - Episode 66

2015 Annual Letter

and today is 04/27/2016.

2015 feels mushy to me at the moment, largely because we are in the middle of an unexpected immigration visa process for my parents. This process didn’t go as we planned, and I will include the details in the next annual letter.

2015 is relatively quite. We still considering relocating to Seattle, but haven’t  taken any action. Our excuse is that we are not ready, career wise. I was just promoted to a manager position in late 2014 and I thought some experiences in the role would help during my future job hunting in Seattle. My wife also switched to another group to learn more about data science. So no major step made towards that goal, but this might have just changed, considering the unexpected immigration visa issue we are facing. The only project I completed is painting the garage ceiling. I still have the study room to work on this year.

In 2015, I made two business trip. One to Asia, one to Texas. The Asia tour includes Thailand, China, and Vietnam. It was a good trip. I was able to go back and spent two nights at home. Coincidently, another classmate from secondary school who currently live in NY, was visiting Shanghai as well. We had dinner with some old friends and it was fun. I went to Texas for training and met another classmate from Case. She got married after graduation and moved to LA, then Dallas. I had dinner with her family and learned about the local job market and growing Chinese population there. My impression of the city is dry, and still developing. It does have big Chinese grocery stores that rival the ones in Seattle. Considering the underdeveloped transportation system, Dallas is not ideal for my parents, although the local housing and job outlook sounds good.

We finally got our citizenship in 2015. My wife was naturalized in Dec, and me in Jan, 2016. It was a milestone for both of us, and we need to move onto the next one. In preparation for the next move, I have tried to give away cookware stuff to friends and family throughout the year. At the same time, I have been getting new upgrades. For example, I bought a few carbon steel French frying pans, and spent a fortune on kitchen knives. My knife collection expands into German style knife which I wasn’t keen on before. My taste of kitchen knife has changed. I have acquired knifes from the big three: Henckels, Wusthof, and Messermeister, and have been enjoying them. I started to appreciate more about the fit and finish of the knife, and chase less after the steel of the blade or the HRC (like Japanese knife). Knife sharpening has become a hobby to me. I have learned to control my hand motion better during knife sharpening, and I don’t mind working on knife from time to time to keep them sharp. Therefore, high HRC doesn’t seem to be as import to me as before.

D3 continues to cost me significant amount of time, but it starts to taper off in 2016. I really don’t understand why the company keeps upgrading the game for free, but it’s indeed addictive. I finished Last of Us and Far Cry on PS4. Those are good games. I bought a few more games but haven’t got the chance to play them.

Alice turned 5, and we haven’t started her with the piano lesson. She gets home around 6:15pm, and we need to get her to finish dinner, and homework, then go to bed by 8pm. Not much time. We signed her up for a Chinese poem reading competition and she got a 2^nd place. It took many days of practice, and she cried in the first rehearsal because she forgot the line. I am glad to see she feels bad for the poor performance.

We went to Atlantis, Bahamas for vacation last year. It was our first “all inclusive vacation” experience. It was a relaxing vacation, only that I was pretty sick the week before the trip. The hotel was a huge compound and all the entertainments are onsite. Wife and kid had a great time. We loaded up on food in a local supermarket before we went into the hotel. I also went to a local market to get some local specialty food, and it was good. We also ordered Chinese takeout for the very first time. The quality is merely acceptable, but it’s more reasonable priced comparing to the food offering in the hotel. This is a better choice for me than the cruse we did last year.

In 2015, I stopped going to CSH board meetings. It was not very productive and I was getting lazy. I admit.

Our investment didn’t outperform the market, in fact a few of my selections tanked significantly. We moved our portfolio to Vanguard because we started to move to a “fund based” portfolio for stability.

I haven’t done much running in 2015, mostly just swimming in the gym. In the later part of the year, I got tired of glass and contacts and decided to go through the Lasik surgery. Early 2016, I went through a successful surgery that correct the vision on both eyes to 20/20. My vision is still stabilizing as of this writing. But early indication per Dr. is very good.

I also found a new dentist in 2015 per a recommendation form a coworker. He is not the closest to where I live, but I can’t complain about the quality of the work. So I will stick to him for now. Alice also went to a dentist for the first time. She did well, thanks to the TV in the room.

My wife still dance for various Chinese festivals and participate the MaDaCol, the performance designed by Case dance school graduates. We still have after performance party with them.

“Mad Max” tops the most memorable cinema chart in 2015. Raw, focused, and emotional. I liked it very much. Oscar nominee “Joy” was also good, but not great. The much anticipated “Star Wars” was a disappointment. Animation movie “Inside Out” was a disappointment at first watch, because I was comparing it to “Up”. But soon, I realized that it was an important movie, and I watched it the second time with Alice, and thought it was good. “Jurassic World” was entertaining, did its job. The “Big Short” was very interesting, as well as “Steve Job”. “Terminator Genisys” was a disaster. Furious 7 is ok, not as good as “Mission Impossible Rogue Nation”.