Kat

Time for an Email Purge

June 8, 2017 By Kat

Fastest way to get rid of 13,848 unread emails? Well, by quitting my job, my corporate email account disappeared into a poof of dust. 😀

I had a similar mess of emails in my personal account, but alas, you can’t quit life. I had thousands of unread emails, hundreds of drafts, and so many emails stored that I was at almost 100% of my 17GB of Google storage.

Since I was starting a new chapter of life, I decided to clear my inbox. It felt scary to draw a line in the sand and say everything that I had not read up until this point would be archived. Nevertheless, I did a big “select all” in Gmail. I marked all those messages as read and archived everything.

Frankly, I have never been so happy to see the “empty state” of a screen before. It felt like there was an angelic glow around it!

Time for an Email Purge

That didn’t reduce my storage use though. I still had no space left! AHHHH!

EMAIL PURGE

My friend Alice decided it was time for an intervention. We agreed to meet up and do an email purge on our respective computers. We would be ruthless in assuring each other that most things should be laid in their final resting place in the trash. Our other friend Dorris heard about our plans, and jumped on board too.

The evening of the email purge arrived. We met up, decided we were hungry, and went to eat pho. Ah, procrastination as its finest. We came back and Dorris fell into a food coma on the couch. 😛

Alice and I were left to fend for ourselves. We started off nice and easy. I was deleting marketing emails from retailers, but the percentage of storage used was not dropping. I needed bigger and bolder measures.

PHOTOS

I checked this Google dashboard to see how my storage was being used. My photos were taking up a heck of a lot of space. I headed over to the Google Photos settings page to downgrade my full res photos into “high quality” ones (which Google allows unlimited storage for). The compression took ages to complete, but it was an easy win.

GMAIL

Next I moved on to tackle the beast of emails. I looked at this article for advice on how to find those big culprits that were eating up all my storage. The golden search query was:

larger:25M

By typing this into the search bar in Gmail, I could see the list of emails that were larger than 25MB and then DESTROY THEM with no mercy! That was fun, so I decided to search for the next largest email messages.

larger:20M

I deleted those, and then kept searching for the next biggest files that were remaining. I was on a roll!

larger:16M

larger:13M

In the meantime, the percentage of storage used was dropping magnificently – down to 91%, then 84%, and then *BAM* 58%!

OLD EMAILS

If those numbers sound exciting, then wait ‘til you hear what I excavated from my inbox. First up, I found a PDF attachment of a 1200-page textbook on computer science algorithms from college. I had no idea why it was there or how I obtained it. But the associated class brings back nightmares. Late nights in a computer cluster eating chicken parmesan from a takeout box and staring at unsolvable homework questions. *Clicks the trash can icon* Never going to need that again!

I’m a sucker for signing up for mailing lists, but I can’t keep up with them. On occasion, I filter them into a folder. With a swift reality check from Alice, I had to finally admit that I would never go back to look at them. Goodbye, emails. I wish I could have read you, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Then I proceeded to delete emails with photos, videos, zip files, and slide decks from school projects from OVER A DECADE AGO. I got rid of old emails with job recruiters, which if I had pursued would have completely changed the course of my life in terms of living location, work experience, and people that I met.

I also came across was an email from 2009 entitled “YAYYY HANSON!!!!!” when my college friends and I got tickets to see Hanson in downtown Boston. We were so excited. The thread even included some MP3 song files to get us pumped up! Goodbye Hanson, you’re not cool anymore, and I need the email storage space.

At the same time, Alice discovered unredeemed gift card money from 2014. How great is it to find find free money?? I think Dorris felt inspired (or guilty) and got up from the couch to turn on her computer to delete a couple too. We high-fived each other for our progress and took a break by eating sour gummy worms.

EMAIL DRAFTS

Later I switched to tackling my 739 email drafts. Some drafts made no sense! There were drafts with a single phone number in them, but no mention of who it was for. -_-

I found unsent emails to friends and family, TODO lists, journal entries, house hunting links, articles, and book recommendations – all these emails that would never receive the glory of a “sent” timestamp.

I opened a draft to a guy that I met in the Philippines and had a crush on (years ago). For a moment, I was so confused. “Wait…. when did I know how to speak Tagalog?? Never??” Then I remembered I used an online translation tool, trying to be clever to impress him. 😛 Anyhow, definitely not going to send that email anymore!

It’s funny how our email archives can be a reflection of our relationship history. There were old emails and chats with past guys I had dated or been interested in. It was nostalgic. I saw how I grew as a person over time, and learned to use periods instead of “lol” to transition between thoughts.

I also witnessed how my relationships with friends and family changed based on the number of email exchanges we had through the years. We become close to people and sometimes drift apart. “The only thing that’s constant in life is change.”

As much as I would’ve wanted to revisit each and every one of my hundreds of thousands of emails from my past, we had to eventually call it a night. Thanks to my friends who slayed the email dragons with me, I reached 49% storage! Wahoo!

It feels GREAT to have de-cluttered my digital life and to have a pie chart that is now beautifully symmetrical.

Hope you enjoyed this post! I’m off to add to the email clutter of the world by sending this post to my subscribers now! 😛

Asking for Permission

June 5, 2017 By Kat

I realized that I try to ask for permission too often in life.

There are the little things that I do without thinking. I ask, “Can I go to the bathroom?” when I’m at a friend’s house for the first time. Sometimes they’ll playfully respond, “No, you can’t!” with a big grin.

When I got a new manager at work, I asked, “Could I have a particular day off?” He was perfectly fine with it and added, “This is not a prison. You don’t need to ask for permission!”

Sometimes I’ll ask my boyfriend if it’s okay that I hang out with a friend on the weekend. He responds with, “You don’t need to ask me, love. Go have fun.”

THE PAST

This begs the question, why do I ask for permission from people who don’t think I need to be asking them? I believe it’s a bad habit from being in environments for many years where there were structured rules on what I could or could not do – i.e. living at home, living in a dorm, going to school, working at companies.

Don’t get me wrong, boundaries and rules are great. They create order out of chaos. They teach us good judgement when we are young fledglings in this world. They help us stay in between the lines – safe from things outside the lines which are dangerous, unethical, or involve monsters that will eat you alive.

When I was a Developer Advocate at Google, we wrote social media and blog posts for developers in the public. I ran the content for these posts by a bunch of people before releasing. They would proofread and give me feedback on what to add, nix, or re-word. For any type of product launch, there was an even beefier process. We needed approval from a lengthy list of people including PR and management. Having a protocol is understandable, but nevertheless, the process could take an unpredictable amount of time and gave me anxiety.

THE PRESENT

When I started writing posts on my personal blog, I asked people to proofread it for me. Unknowingly, I was creating my own “launch process” for my blog and recruiting people to give me the OK on whether it was good enough to launch or not. However, my proofreaders have busy lives, and they couldn’t always read it right away. So there I was, anxiously waiting to post something but blocked on waiting for my proofreader to review it. In this new world without any rules on my work, I asked myself, “Why am I creating these artificial roadblocks on releasing my posts?” I realized I don’t need anyone’s sign-off. I could trust my gut on whether something was good enough to share.

Another perk of a personal blog is that I’m no longer representing another organization or entity. I don’t need to be consistent with someone else’s voice or brand, no matter how awesome that brand is.

I can speak in MY voice.

I can use expletives @!@#%!@#*$ to complain and rant about things. I can type this blog post as a text message – wutcha doin? I can hold down the SHIFT and 1 key as long as I want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (My favorite punctuation mark.) I can use asterisks to cry *tears of joy!* And I can make it rain emojis. 🙂 😀 😯 😛 😐 😉 🙁 😡 😕 😯 🙂 😉 😮 😡 😐 😀 🙂 😀 😯 😛 😐 😉 🙁 😡 😕 😯 🙂 😉 😮 😡 😐 😀 🙁 😡 😕 😯 🙂 😉 😮 😐 😯 😮 😀 😯 😛 😐 😉 🙁 😀 🙂

But more than grammatical freedom, is the freedom to express my ideas in an unapologetic way. I can talk about whatever topic weighs on my mind or makes me super giddy regardless of how random it is (see Monopoly post). I can share my faith journey too! There’s no need to be politically correct here.

REFLECTION

There can be a very thin line between being considerate of other people’s boundaries and caring too much about what they think. Unfortunately, it’s very easy for me to cross into that latter territory. I ask for permission too much because I want approval from the other person on the course of action I’m about to take.

For example, earlier this year, I felt the need to ask everyone around me for permission to leave my job. While I didn’t exactly ask for permission from my family, I ask the loaded question: “Hypothetically, what do you think about me leaving Google?” I also felt like I needed to get permission from my team to leave. I wasn’t sure what to say, how to say it, or if they’d dislike me for leaving. It turned out that I was overly worried and was able to leave the team on a friendly note – at least I think so. 😛

Now the path to my future can literally take any direction. I can go this way or that, or even head backwards if I wanted! Regardless of what I choose, I know that I can use my inner compass to guide me.

I no longer need to ask for permission from anyone to live my fullest life.

As the James Bay “Let it Go” song goes, “Why don’t you be you, and I’ll be me.”

Favorite Podcast

May 30, 2017 By Kat

Okay, I’ve only ever listened to one podcast, but this is my favorite: NPR’s How I Built This.

First of all, I didn’t know how to play podcasts on my phone or which app to download. (I’m a little behind the times.) Turns out you can play this one for free from the Google Play Music app. Here’s the link.

In this podcast, entrepreneurs talk about how they built their companies and the movements that catapulted them into a well-known brand today. Guy Raz is an excellent host – practically reads my mind and asks nitty gritty questions about how they got from one point to the next.

The founders all started off as “normal” relatable people (sometimes just out of college or dropping out of college). But at some point, they unexpectedly stumbled upon a belief that people should have a certain product or service in their life. None of the founders realized how big their idea would get, which perhaps makes their stories more charming.

IN THE BEGINNING

They saw a small niche in the market and went after it with as much hustle as possible.

Kendra Scott started her jewelry business by taking some wire-wrapping classes at a local bead shop. She used $500 to buy initial supplies and created some jewelry pieces in the spare bedroom of her house. She went store-to-store in Austin trying to sell them, while carrying her son in a baby carrier. Eventually one of the stores agreed to place an order. She wasn’t sure if it was because they felt sorry for her and the baby!

Meanwhile, Alli Webb started DryBar after getting antsy with being a stay-at-home mom for 5 years. She asked the mom community in her neighborhood if anyone wanted a blowout. She would go to their house to do their hair. It was $40 because it was an easy amount – two $20 bills.

Kate Spade wanted to create a line of structured handbags that had clean, simple architectural shapes. In the beginning, she and her husband had a hard time buying materials to make the prototypes because fabric houses only sold in large bulk quantities of 100 yards. Hence, their first bag was made of burlap from a POTATO SACK company!

For her first meeting with a big buyer Neiman Marcus, Sara Blakely flew out to Dallas for a 10 minute meeting. When she realized that the woman was losing interest, she desperately asked, “Will you come with me to the bathroom? I want to show you something.” Sara ended up showing her the outfit without Spanx (shapewear to keep you slim), went into the stall to put Spanx on, and then came out. The buyer was shocked at the difference it made and was sold on the idea, right in the bathroom. I guess a business deal can happen anywhere.

WHAT TO CALL IT?

There are also funny tidbits like how they came up with the names of their companies.

Nolan Bushnell wanted start a family-friendly arcade place called Coyote Pizza. He thought he had bought a coyote costume, but it was actually a rat. (I guess they look somewhat similar?) That was a problem, so he suggested to change the name to Rick Rat’s Pizza. The marketing team thought that was a terrible idea, so they came up with a three-smile name: Chuck E. Cheese’s. 😀

Sara Blakely from Spanx wrote potential names on scrap pieces of paper, even on the back of rental car agreements because she was traveling so much. She wanted a name with a strong “k” sound because she heard from comedian friends that the “k” sound makes people laugh. (Does it?) Eventually, Sara chose the name Spanx because the word is both a little naughty and funny. The name also fits because her product is about making your butt look good. 😉

In Austin, John Mackey and his girlfriend Renee Lawson opened a natural food store called SaferWay (a pun on Safeway), which would go on to become Whole Foods Market.

THE ROLLERCOASTER

From the stories, I realized that running a business never gets easier. Even if the founders achieved a certain level of success (i.e. getting an item into a department store), new challenges kept cropping up.

In the beginning, Sara Blakely literally stood in the Neiman Marcus hosiery section every day to explain how to use Spanx to potential customers. She also gave money to friends of friends (even someone she hadn’t talked to since elementary school) to buy her products in the 7 initial cities where Neiman Marcus sold her product.

Kendra Scott fulfilled her first big order to Harold’s stores ($75k of jewelry) out of her home. It was finished on the dining table and UPS picked it up from her front doorstep.

John Mackey’s first Whole Foods store was doing well, but then the city got hit with the worst flood in 70 years. All the inventory and equipment were damaged. They had to borrow even more money to rebuild the store again.

Every day, they be hustlin’.

LEARNING

All the founders drew on their past experience – whether it was from working in a different business (Kendra Scott once owned a hat store) or at a big company as a little minion (Kate Spade was an accessories editor at Mademoiselle magazine). They were getting an education when they didn’t even know it. Hence, when they started their businesses, they had expertise but also a fresh perspective on the problem they were solving.

Most of them admit that they had no freaking idea what they were doing along the way. (I can relate to that!) They had to ramp up on business skills. Angie Hicks from Angie’s List (which maintains a list of recommended contractors in your neighborhood) even took a hiatus from her company to go back to business school.Others gained work experience from apprenticing under someone they really admired. All of them found someone to join forces with – like a husband, brother, mentor, or even the competitors down the street. And they all learned through sheer trial and error, some nearly going bankrupt in difficult times.

One story I especially liked was about celebrity chef José Andrés, who made the small plate (tapas) dining concept popular in the U.S. This guy had a crazy mentor whose way of teaching him on the fly included throwing a hot pan towards his head. If a hot pan was thrown at me, I would freeze and watch it hit the floor in slow motion. 😮

José found another invaluable mentor in Ferran Adrià who taught him some important life lessons. Those words also stuck with me that I decided to go back and transcribe it for you guys: “Don’t be afraid of trying and don’t take things for granted. You have to experience and discover things on your own. If you follow the teachings before you, you are only following what somebody else has done before you. You need not only to read and learn the theory, you need to discover on your own. That’s the moment of true learning.” SO DEEP!

WRAP UP

All in all, it was fun to hear the stories of the brands that I know and love. Which brands? Well, let’s just say on my 22nd birthday, I went with friends to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate. I loved it. Arcade games are the best. My friends were sure to squirt lots of hand sanitizer on their hands upon leaving the place.

Me having a blast

I also got my first Kate Spade bag as a birthday gift two years ago and was thrilled (see below). I have since been hooked, adding wallets and crossbody bags to my collection. Sigh, they’re too cute to resist.

Me being smitten with my bag

I have yet to wear Spanx, but as I look down at my love handles overflowing my jeans, it’s something I’m considering buying. 😉

Alright, so check out the NPR podcast if you’re interested. Enjoy!

The Monopoly Game at Safeway

May 26, 2017 By Kat

OMG, guys, this game is ridiculous.

THE GAME

If you aren’t familiar, every year, the Safeway grocery store has a Monopoly game where you collect game pieces and try to win some prizes – money, scholarships, free food, cars, homes, etc…

When you buy something at the store, the receipt tells you the number of Monopoly game tickets the cashier will give you. If you buy “Monopoly bonus game ticket” products, you get an extra ticket. On a normal shopping trip, you may earn anywhere from 1 – 20 game pieces, if you had a full cart of groceries.

Sometimes the cashiers (either being really nice or don’t give a crap about the game) hand you a stack of tickets instead of counting out the number that your receipt says. YES! More to open!

THE PIECES

When you tear off the ends of the game ticket, you unfold it and see either a coupon of some sort and 4 thin game pieces that go on the Monopoly game board. Similar to the game we all played when we were younger, if you collect all the pieces within a category like $1 million dollars, then you win that prize.

Anyhow, I’ve never bothered to stick the pieces onto the board because you’ve got to hunt around to find where it belongs. This takes an insanely long time. There’s a ton of duplicate pieces, so sometimes you don’t even get the satisfaction of sticking it on the board! What a letdown.

MY SISTER

My sister had the patience for this. Last year, she emailed my whole extended family asking people to give her their Monopoly tickets. For months, she collected stacks and stacks from family members and methodically put them on the board. The whole time, she was 2 pieces away from $1 million, but couldn’t find those last two pieces. They were probably only a couple of winning pieces somewhere in the vast expanse of this country. Or the winning pieces were at the bottom of someone’s trash can.

MY COUSIN

This year, my sister has a baby, so she ain’t got time for this no more. Instead my cousin, full of eagerness (and more importantly without any kids), emailed out to the whole extended family asking for their Monopoly tickets. And so the craze began. Except she has a wedding to plan for this summer, so she is swamped with other things to do. Too bad there’s no Monopoly prize for a free wedding that plans itself.

MY OTHER COUSINS

Anyhow, one time, she delegated the work to my younger cousins, who are in middle and high school. That’s the age in life when you love collecting and sorting things (it was stickers and pencils in my day), so they loved playing the game. I was hosting a cousin get-together at my house and prepared all this food for a taco bar feast, but my younger cousins just ignored the food. They were just too enthralled by the hundreds of Monopoly pieces that needed to find their resting spot on the board. I walked over to the living room and sat on the couch nonchalantly. Then I got yelled at by my younger cousin for stepping on all the organized piles of pieces on the floor and ruining their system. Oops.

THE INSTANT WINNER COUPONS

Anyhow, this game is just a hilarious waste of time, but it’s so funny how people get so into the game for bursts of time (including myself) juxtaposed against people who absolutely do not care about the game but get wrapped up into it somehow.

Collecting them is addicting. It’s like lotto tickets but instead of winning jackpots, you can win things like a loaf of french bread or a bottle of aspirin. This one time, I passed by a hungry family was sitting outside Safeway asking for spare change. I didn’t have any more money on me, but I gave them the coupon for a free pound of bananas. They looked very confused, but I hope they redeemed it.

For me, these tiny prizes can be just as exciting. Hey, fresh produce is expensive these days! So my basic workflow would be to first open each ticket to see if I got any instant winner items (like free groceries), or coupons for things I would normally buy ($1 off soap or 50 cents off frozen veggies). Then I would neatly store away all the board game pieces in an envelope for my cousin.

MY PARENTS

When I visited my parents, they handed me a fat envelope full of unopened game pieces. Since I’m unemployed (see last post), they figured I had time on my hands to open all of them. Eh, makes sense. I gleefully did so, and found that they had earned free flour, aluminum foil, and bread, as well as a long-tail of random 50 cent off coupons. I enthusiastically shared my discoveries with them, and they brushed me off, telling me to redeem them because their eyesight isn’t good enough to read the tiny font on the pieces. (The game makers should think about accessibility next year!)

My cousin would get wide-eyed with horror when I would hand her these envelopes bursting with pieces. She just saw hours of her life flash before her eyes as she thought about having to sort through them. Haha poor girl.

YOU WIN… MORE TICKETS

Sometimes the Instant Winner coupons said you win 2 more free Monopoly tickets. So I went back to Safeway to redeem those additional tickets, and presumably some of those would also tell you that you won more free tickets. It’s a vicious cycle that you can’t escape.

One day, I was at the grocery store with friends. I handed the cashier my “more free tickets” coupons and he handed me AN ENTIRE BOX of tickets. He was like “Here. The game is ending today anyways, and we need to get rid of these.” I was OVERJOYED and couldn’t believe my luck.

This caught the attention of my friends, who had not heard about the game, but now their interest was suddenly piqued. When we had reached the car (not even reaching home yet), they began tearing them open, trying to find some free stuff. One of them was moving across the country, and needed to re-buy his stock of spices, so a coupon for free salt was very exciting to him.

PEELING THEM OPEN

I was quite shocked. Here they were, my friends coming all the way from out of town, wanting to spend an afternoon opening these Safeway Monopoly tickets. Simple minds have simple pleasures. Haha just kidding. They’re actually very smart engineers, and one’s a doctor, but they totally jumped onto the Monopoly train that leads to basically nowhere. Of course, since they’re engineers, they’re very analytical, so they started sorting the tickets into categories of free stuff and coupons, as well as prioritizing them based on usefulness. It was a sight to see. I overheard, “50 cents off paper plates!” “Oh NICE! …Hmm we know we’re becoming adults now by what we get excited about.” 😛

Upon their insistence, we went back to Safeway two more times that day. Golden Gate bridge got nothing on this Safeway. My friend tried to bargain with the cashier to give us another box, but they only gave us a meager stack instead. But as soon as we got inside the house, the 3 of them ripped through those lotto tickets in 10 minutes – fully sorted and incorporated into the sophisticated coupon prioritization system as well. I was impressed.

Upon surveying our winnings, we decided that we could feed ourselves off of free food for the rest of their visit in California. We could have free buttermilk waffles and greek yogurt for breakfast. Then for lunch, we could get free bread, tuna, and macaroni salad. For dinner, we could have free pasta, pasta sauce, cheese, iceberg garden salad, can of corn, and 1 avocado to be split among 4 people. Oh and don’t forget, free mentos for after-dinner mints.

Here’s a snapshot of only a portion of the coupons we redeemed.

Other local friends would come over to visit these out-of-town friends. They would be flabbergasted at my kitchen counter now filled with Monopoly tickets. They laughed in shock / horror and secretly thought to themselves, “Do these people have nothing else better to do with their time??” Nevertheless, we convinced them to take some coupons like the free Shutterfly photo books or custom reusable tote bags. I mean, who doesn’t want their own face on a reusable bag? (Not me, that’s why I tried to get rid of them.)

Some of my friends don’t really eat carbs, so there was too much of the bread left over. As a result, I decided we should make bread pudding. Tastes pretty good! Harder to say no to bread that’s covered in chocolate. 😀

Note: Chocolate not included in winnings

THE BURDEN

My friends eventually flew back to their own homes. I had the box of game pieces, which I promptly dropped off at my cousin’s place. She politely tried to decline them, “Oh, you don’t need to drop them off.” But I insisted. “Oh I’m already nearby. TAKE THEM!! And have some bread pudding too.” She accepted. Muahaha! When I handed her the box, I could tell by the less than enthusiastic expression on her face that she was not going to be putting those pieces on the board.

My friends also left a gargantuan stack of coupons and free stuff for me to redeem. Being Asian, I can’t let free stuff go to waste. The coupons apparently expire in one week. I had to go on multiple trips to different Safeways to redeem the stuff because everyone else in town also freaked out that the coupons were expiring soon. Hence, the stores were out of stock of the 74-ct tissue box, salsa, 25 sq. ft. aluminum foil, and etc…

I did manage to convince the cashier to give me a box of 75 sq. ft. aluminum foil for free, in exchange for 3 coupons of 25 sq. ft. aluminum foil. Math comes in handy, kids.

I also got 2 free containers of iodized salt. I was pushing my cart around the store, and then ran into another lady who had a cart filled with 7 containers of the same iodized salt. Nothing else. Just salt. I don’t even know what it means for salt to be iodized, but seeing her made me want to go get more salt. I had more coupons for that too. But unfortunately, the shelf was now completely empty. She had taken all the salt! 😮

As I was doing self-checkout for all my items and ringing up my dozens of coupons, I kept getting errors where I had to wait for assistance from the cashier. I was having a friendly conversation with him, and he said that the problem was that I had exceeded the coupon limit for a transaction. He had to manually override the system to allow each coupon. Wow, exceeding the coupon limit! Never thought that’d be on my list of accomplishments. I don’t know if I should be proud or extremely sad.

GIVING UP

After the checkout machine printed out the longest receipt of my life, I walked out of the store with 2 huge bags of mostly free groceries (I did buy some stuff for money). However, I STILL had a handful of coupons. Darn it!

At this point, my mom came over, and I decided to hand the rest over to her and throw up my arms in defeat. There was still 27 coupons for free donuts, so I figured my dad could bring them to his work. Who says you can’t buy popularity in the form of donuts for the office? I also gave my parents the 5 coupons for free hot dog buns – that’s like 72 buns! Memorial day is coming up soon and BBQs are a thing. Hmm, but our big family even isn’t THAT big. Oh well, it’s their problem now! I also gave them the remaining free loaves of french bread. I can only make so many trays of bread pudding before I run out of new people to feed it to. (I’m making my last tray tonight for my church group.) WHEW! And that’s where my story ends – unless Safeway restocks their 5 lb bags of flour.

OMG I’ve wasted so much time on this game, including writing this blogpost. And now I’m wasting YOUR time as you read this blogpost. LoL. *Shakes fist in the air* Curse the people who created this game!!!

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The Unemployed Life: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

May 12, 2017 By Kat

The Good

Where to begin? I’ll start with the glory of sleeping in. I can wake up WITHOUT an alarm clock, without feeling like I need to rush to be somewhere at a certain time. I can spend the morning scrolling through the news or Instagram. When I feel like it, I can brush my teeth. Then I can start my day, or just crawl back into bed under the cozy warm covers. I can put on regular clothes or keep wearing my PJs. I’ll be home all day anyways. I guess another way to title the post is: “Life Before Having Kids.”

Another great perk is that Sunday nights aren’t a bummer anymore. While other people sigh at the thought of another work week, I get to pleasantly remind myself, “Oh, there’s no work tomorrow!” And I’m starting to love Mondays. Mondays are the start of a new adventure – time to myself, time to wander, and do whatever I want. My math teacher also described his newly retired life like this. He would drive down the road, see an interesting sign or place, and have the luxury of time to stop and pursue whatever caught his interest. I guess I could have also called this post: “What it Feels Like to be Retired.”

On the topic of weekdays, I love being out and about when everyone else is at work. Things are quieter in the neighborhood. I can zoom through the empty roads and green streetlights. There are no lines to check out at the supermarkets and malls. I get in and out efficiently. I arrive at home and slam the door shut before the rush hour mayhem begins outside.

With a slower life, there’s plenty of time to savor and be more present in each moment. If I’m meeting up with someone to catch up, I can fully enjoy that person’s company without feeling like I need to tend to my TODO list immediately afterwards.

Before you start hating me with envy, I better move onto the next section.

The Bad

I love good food, trying out new restaurants, and drinking overpriced coffee beverages (refer to last blogpost). But since the income isn’t flowing in, I try to reel in those extra expenses. Ah well. That’s what boyfriends are for, right? 😉

Remember that whole part about having lots of time while other people at work? Well, sometimes, I want to actually hang out with those people! On days when I am really bored, I may try to convince them to take a day off or call in sick. 😛 I do have some friends who work nighttime/weekend shifts, so sometimes they’re free during the day. In addition, I have been meeting more retired folks, and they’ve got fountains of knowledge to share. Ironically, they’re also facing similar questions: What to do with life and all this time? Imagine that, after a lifetime of a rewarding career, they’re still pondering the same things as me! It certainly puts things into perspective.

Without work, there isn’t a clear purpose to each day. Time flies by too fast – especially if you take a lot of naps. 😛 Frankly, sometimes nothing gets done. Because you didn’t have any specific goals or work you absolutely have to get done that day, it can feel like a waste. (Although, I somehow managed to turn in my taxes on time!)

Alright, let’s keep on sliding on down into the even more glum aspects of unemployment.

The Ugly

You can no longer hide behind the excuse that you’re too busy with work to do something. This is where you have to face the raw reality underneath it all. You tried to distract yourself from dealing with certain issues, but if there ever was a time to deal with it, it unfortunately is now.

There is the physical stuff you don’t want to deal with – cleaning and maintaining a home, taking care of a car, going to doctor/dentist/eye doctor appointments.

And of course, there is the emotional stuff you didn’t want to deal with. There’s lots to be said on this, but for one, I know that I could be less critical of myself. It was primarily my own unreasonably high standards that previously trapped me into crazy work schedules. 🙁 Rejiggering the expectations on my life and work has been a tumultuous journey. If I can’t fit exercise into my life when I don’t have a job, what type of choices am I making about my health? Oy vey.

Guilt also rears its enormously ugly head. Sometimes people (although well-intentioned) may nudge you to “go get a job” for the sake of security and because “that’s what you’re supposed to be doing.” It can feel like there’s an enormous ticking time bomb next to you to figure out what you want.

Oh, and there’s another ticking bomb that is finances. There’s nothing like seeing your bank account go on a steady decline to give you the anxious jitters. It can keep you up all night wondering “What if X or Y terrible thing happens?” Or “What if I run out of savings and I still haven’t figured out what I want? Would this all be a waste?” These questions occasionally plague my mind and suck up all my energy that could be spent elsewhere. I try to quell those pointless “what if” thoughts, until they creep back into my mind again.

Before quitting my job, I wrote up a spending plan to make sure I had enough saved up. The big question was “How much is enough?” How much money should you save up before you begin to allow yourself the freedom to figure out what makes you a happy and balanced person? While there is no numerical hard and fast rule, I found myself feeling that I finally had “enough” to start moving to the next stage of life. Hmm but as time passes, it’s still hard to be sure that I really saved up “enough.”

Last Words

I’d like to emphasize how extremely blessed I feel each day to be able to take a break from work. Even though I am getting more sleep, I try to be intentional with my time. I spend an enormous amount of time looking at job postings, researching things, reading books, watching videos, and attending events that could be relevant to my future career.

I’ve tried to come around on all these seemingly “negative” aspects of unemployment, and I realize that all of these challenges are opportunities for me to grow and embrace the uncertainty of life. No day is ever a waste. I’m learning to separate what other’s think of me with what I know is best for me. The most precious things we have in life are time and attention. If financial situations allow, we can give ourselves the space to ponder what we truly want, without feeling guilty about it.

The haze of my future gets cloudier on some days compared to others. The question, of whether the basic needs in my life will be covered, can only be answered at each passing moment. This is how I’ve learned to deal with the fact that there are no guarantees in the future: I continually learn that I need complete faith in God (not 80% faith, but 100% faith), that He will provide everything I need at the right time in the right place. Sigh, so hard to put into practice.

Before deciding to leave my job, I kept getting the vision of me standing at a cliff. I had two choices. I could either stay on the cliff where it was safe and familiar. Or I could jump, and the only thing preventing me from shattering to the ground in a million pieces is believing that God will catch me. So here I am, free-falling, and not having any idea where or when I will land.

What’s the next step?

Well, I think a mid-morning nap is a good place to start. 😛

Let’s Go Eat At That Place That Had The Thing – Bay Area Restaurants

May 6, 2017 By Kat

Sometimes we forget the names of restaurants. We resort to other quick-hand ways of referring to them based on location, a memory we had there, or a particular dish they serve that is seared into our tastebuds. When those cravings arise, we pester the closest human body nearby, “Hey, when are we going to such-and-such place?” We anxiously await the burst of joy in our hearts when our glistening eyes meet the dish as the server brings it to our table and sets it down in front of us. We proceed to inhale it, savoring every last crumb on the plate. And then we feel whole again.

On that note, I’ve decided on more appropriate names for my favorite Bay Area restaurants and wanted to share these good eats with you.

the dumpling place

I always order the three delight dumplings (pan-fried), vegetarian egg dumplings (boiled), $1 bowl of hot and sour soup, and green onion pancake. Even if I get seated in the narrow hallway to the bathroom, I’m a happy camper because I got my dumplings and nothing else matters. (Tong Dumpling – Cupertino)

the garlic bread place in Los Gatos

My friend and I stumbled on this place accidentally. We were overeager and filled up on the garlic bread and free bread (both spectacular). As a result, we took most of our entrees home in to-go boxes. Months passed and we forgot the name of this place so we didn’t know how to come back. After a lot of intense Yelp searching and browsing user photos of restaurant decor, I tracked this place down. Once I sunk my teeth into the spicy garlic bread again, it was all worth it. (The Pastaria & Market – Los Gatos)

BWW

Ever since I discovered 10 cent wings in college in Boston for happy hour, I love me some wings. It’s not 10 cents anymore and I can’t eat as many as I did in my early 20s, but this place hits the spot. The best flavor and only flavor I eat is lemon pepper. Don’t forget to have a celery stick to cover your dose of veggies for the day. (Buffalo Wild Wings – Fremont)

the falafel place

My friend introduced me to this place, and I was ecstatic eating a falafel sandwich on a cold winter’s night on a picnic bench under a heat lamp. A couple days later, I convinced my sister that she was also craving Mediterranean food, so I could buy us some for lunch. Twice in one week, it was THAT good. (Falafel Stop – Sunnyvale)

best bread pudding in town

This bread pudding is like heaven. The rest of the food is amazing too. Warning: don’t sit at the chef’s table (bar facing the cooks) because you’ll see all the dishes as they come out, and you’ll want to order EVERYTHING!!! *Eyes following the waiter as he walks away with a glistening pile of onion rings atop a teriyaki skirt steak* (Town – San Carlos)

the egg tart place

Okay, here’s the thing. They’re so successful that they can go on vacation. A lot. Sad customers find a closed shop with a sign but no egg tarts in sight. If you happen to catch them when they’re open, don’t just buy one! Buy a dozen or actually, buy more than you think you will ever need/want. That should last you until your next craving. Also pass them out to friends and family so they get hooked as well. (Golden Gate Bakery – SF)

the pork belly quesadilla place

I never knew this place existed! It’s like one of those mirages that disappear. It’s hard to find this restaurant because the sign blends in with the trees or something. You have to know exactly where it is and look head on at the restaurant to see it. The other stuff on the menu is okay, but the pork belly quesadillas are BOMB – a heart attack in a pocket of tortilla. (Mandarin Roots – Palo Alto)

gelato bar place from my cousin’s wedding

The owner is a sweet old man. There is no customer storefront. It’s more like an office/warehouse, and you have to setup an appointment to go. He works with hotels and airlines, but also does catering events. If you want to do a small order, you can call and pick up a box on a weekday morning. Hint: Try the chocolate gelato bar. If you can’t say no to gelato, sorry for introducing you to your downfall. (A-Lot-A Gelato & More – Belmont)

tapas place where I drank too much sangria

This one is an obvious choice. Everyone and their mother knows about this place in Mountain View. The mushroom empanadas won’t let you down. Anything with prosciutto melts in your mouth. If you can come on the company dime, even better. Then you can try all the plates and order a pitcher of sangria! The pitcher is not really meant for 2 people, hence the title. 😮 (Cascal – Mountain View)

the japanese tapas place

How to describe this place? I took my friend here when she was visiting from Seattle, and now she dreams about the food here. She’s coming later this month, and I think her dream was a not-so-subtle hint on where I should take her. 😛 (Gochi – Cupertino)

it’s past 9pm, we can go to kirin

Cheap asian food after, you guessed it, 9PM. The fish fillet porridge is my comfort food. Yes, sometimes it’s 8PM and I’m hungry, but I wait an extra hour to get the late night menu. A penny saved is a penny earned! (Kirin – Mountain View)

chimney cake food truck

Well I haven’t been here, but I’m dying to try it. I have already imagined I will love it, otherwise I will be heartbroken. Chasing food trucks is hard though. They’re in the Target parking lot only on Friday and Saturday nights. Last weekend we got there too late and it was nowhere in sight. My dashed hopes could not be assuaged with tacos from the truck that was there instead. (Sweet & Yummy Bakery – Mountain View if you’re lucky)

That’s a wrap! Hope you liked this list. If you have any other suggestions on hidden gems in the Bay Area, let me know in the comments. 😀

Story of My Free Shirts from Google

April 26, 2017 By Kat

When I was a college student, I heard about all these unbelievable perks at the Disneyland of all tech companies: Google. I heard about how they had these big storage cabinets, where someone would stock them up, fling the doors wide open, announce “FREE T-SHIRTS!” and there would be a free-for-all where you could grab as many brightly colored whimsically designed Google logo T-shirts as you wanted.

Fast-forward to my time as an actual employee at Google, and well, it didn’t quite work like that. But at certain points, it did feel like it was raining schwag. The free stuff would just keep coming, which IS as delightful as it sounds! Now I have enough T-shirts and hoodies for a whole “Silicon Valley engineer” wardrobe.

I also have other random things like this Android cookie cutter, which I immediately put to use that holiday season, but have since misplaced. Oops.

Anyways, back to the free T-shirts. It all began with the Noogler shirt when I first started at Google. Noogler stands for New Googler smashed into 1 word because we’re too lazy to say the 2 words. We also received a propeller cap, which this big guy at home wears now. Maybe I should see if the shirt fits him too.

At the end of my first day of orientation at Google, my mentor picked me up to go to my desk and that was when I found out I was joining the Android Apps team! Woohoo, it was my first choice, so I was on cloud 9. I was going to be working on the Android Market app as a software engineer. (The Android Market is the old school name for the Google Play Store app.) We had an incredibly ambitious plan, and the launch for the Honeycomb release of Android was brutal. So many late hours working, but at least we got these cool sweatshirts with our names hand-stitched on them at the end of it. Although, brown was never really my color.

Next up for the Ice Cream Sandwich release, I worked on the Contacts app – making it all prettyful. I learned the real meaning of pixel PERFECT. I was pushing things on the screen left 2 pixels, then right 4 pixels, up 16 pixels, etc… There was a method to the madness, I think. Our app did get mentioned during the keynote launch of Ice Cream Sandwich. 5 seconds of fame, hurrah!

Ice cream sandwich on a shirt

Ice cream sandwich on a truck

Ice cream sandwich in my hand

Then it was time to get back to work. Spring turned into Summer. Code was written. Summer turned into Fall. More code was written. We also got these jackets to keep us warm… but you know how I feel about the color brown. The jacket nearly envelops me, so I passed it onto my cousin. See! Enough schwag to clothe me and my family!

In the final weeks before JellyBean launch, I got shipped to London to help the Google Search team with their app. When I wasn’t stuffing my face with the amazing snacks in their microkitchen and drinking their freshly squeezed orange juice, I managed to fix a few bugs for the team. 😛 The launch celebration included a big Jellybean statue to display on our front lawn, to go with the other dessert statues. There were also many jellybeans eaten, or rather in my case, many popcorn jellybeans were eaten (my favorite flavor).

My next big project was creating the Google Keep Android app. There were ups and downs, pauses and restarts, redesigns and many rounds of iteration. But persistence paid off and we launched to the public on March 20, 2013. I remember that day like it was my birthday! We celebrated our launch in many ways, which included these extremely warm (and oversized) Google Keep hoodies. Our team also made a trip out to visit our counterparts in Sydney, where I got this Down Under shirt and learned how to do a proper Tim Tam slam. BAM!

From the Honeycomb release, to Ice Cream Sandwich, to JellyBean, and KitKat, it was a privilege to be able to witness the Android platform evolve and mature. I lived and breathed Android, and I loved it. Android stickers, squishables, collectibles, devices, I had it all. I also had friends with iOS devices, but those friendships were hanging by a thread. 😉 Kidding!

Buying ALL the Android KitKat bars at Walgreens

About 3 years into my time at Google, something inside me started to feel restless. I loved the people that I worked with, but I felt like my interests were calling me to a different type of work. I heard about a program to travel to Ghana for 3 weeks with a group of Googlers. It was a much-needed break to step back from the hectic schedule of my day job and figure out what I wanted next.

A team and I got to work with a nonprofit that was sharing lifesaving tips on pregnancy with expectant mothers in rural areas using SMS / voicemail messages. The experience cemented in me the amazing power of mobile phones and how much it could improve people’s lives. I realized that there was so much potential in training developers to build apps for their communities. I knew I wanted to be a part of that.

Upon returning home, I slowly made the transition over to the Developer Relations team to become a Developer Advocate (and collect more free T-shirts of course). Our aim was to train developers around the world on how to build Android apps. We tried to do it in scalable ways by creating videos. I still couldn’t get use to seeing myself on video. *Looks away and closes ears* It’s so weird!! Nevertheless, it felt like a surreal job, like I was getting paid to do something I would volunteer for. It felt like I had hit the career jackpot. We got to meet so many developers, startups, and got access to the coveted Google I/O conference, which was a big ol’ party of all the fun Google things in one place. Sleep was not a priority during those days.

During that time, our training team began to partner with Udacity to create free online courses. Even if you don’t have ANY programming experience, you can take the Android for Beginners course. Later we built out more courses, leading students through building a series of apps with a social impact angle. Along the way, we learned words from the Native American Miwok language (“yoowutis” means “Let’s go!” but I have more to learn..), filmed an earthquake scene with our terrible acting skills, and tried to steal a dog from the Silicon Valley Humane Society (we were building a pet shelter app and needed another subject matter expert).

On another random note, at Google there’s the usual Take Your Kids to Work Day, but ALSO a Take Your Parents to Work Day! Our team showed parents how to start building their own apps, and more importantly, how to do the happy dance after your code works. *Raise the roof*

Alas, another 3 years on the Developer Relations team zoomed by. As we wrapped up the final course, the same feeling of restlessness started to bubble up within me. As bittersweet and hard as it is to leave such a wonderful place, I felt like it was time for me to move on from Google. To find the next thing my mind wanted to learn. To find the next thing that my heart wanted to experience. I have yet to figure this out, but will be documenting the journey on this blog, so feel free to join me for one heck of a ride.

As I step back and look at this giant pile of T-shirts on the floor, I am filled with gratitude mixed with nostalgia. I grew up at Google. It sent me around the world and taught me more than I ever thought I could learn. (It also gave me an incredibly high standard for corporate cafeteria food.) While these T-shirts may get old and tattered, the people and experiences are things that I’ll always hold in my heart.

I’ll close here with a photo of my favorite Google T-shirt. I wear it the most.

And ironically, it’s the only one that I paid for.

My Last Free Lunch at Google

April 19, 2017 By Kat

I stepped out of the massage room out into the larger room which was the Wellness Center on Google’s main campus. It took a moment to adjust my eyes to the bright fluorescent lights. I had just finished getting a half hour massage (I know, poor me), in a scrambled effort to use up the hundreds of massage credits I had banked up in the last 6½ years at Google. Throughout that time, I had been so busy with work and deadlines, I had never bothered to use the credits. Oh, the irony.

I walked out of the Wellness Center into the hallway and curiously peered out through the second floor window onto the patio, where Googlers were having lunch. The view was perfect even on this slightly gloomy day. I snapped a picture on my Nexus 5X so I could remember this view, this moment.

February 1, 2017 was my last day at Google. This place was my home away from home. It was my first job out of college, and the experience would be hard to beat. My life had become so intertwined with Google, it was hard to imagine life without it. Sometimes, subtle hints of fear and uncertainty would bubble up inside me, but something beyond the sprawling Google campus was calling me to explore it.

I broke from my daydream and hurried downstairs to meet my friend for lunch. On glancing at the calendar event on my laptop, which was intermittently freezing and taunting me with a loading indicator (battery was at 0%), I realized that I was supposed to meet my friend across campus, in negative 2 minutes.

I bolted down the stairs, ran across the main campus courtyard, to hop into my car. It was blocked by another car, so I asked the valet attendant to move the other car. Yes, there is free valet parking at Google. Mostly because the # of Googlers > # of parking spots, but yes it is a nice privilege. I leaped into my car, zoomed down Charleston Road and headed to the other side of campus, anxious at the stoplights that were taking so long to turn green. Once I parked (no valet this time!), I ran inside the coffee lab to meet my friend with barely enough breath to express a warm welcome and apologize for my lateness.

He was a former coworker from the Google Keep team. It was his orientation week at Google. He had left Google the previous year to pursue new opportunities, and when things didn’t work out as expected, he decided to rejoin Google again. So there we were – crossing paths – him on his way back into Google, and me on my way out. It was a funny thing to realize, and I wondered if I would return again like him.

We sat down to enjoy my last lunch at Google. I had peanut butter beef on the left (I had never heard of that dish either), which was surprisingly tasty. And I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to nab a couple of slices of pizza. I had spent much of my meal times at Google, looking longingly at the pizza and fries offered every day, and would only succumb to the temptation every once in a while (when the smell of cheese and pepperoni was too irresistible). As we ate our lunch, we reminisced and caught up on life.

Like my breakfast earlier in the day, I thoroughly enjoyed each bite – savoring the multitude of flavors. I learned about the practice of mindful eating from the Search Inside Yourself class at Google, which covers various meditation practices for increased well-being. In mindful eating, you chew slowly and intentionally and notice all the tastes and sensations. (No gulping the food down, my usual habit.) It also involves expressing gratitude for the hands that prepared the food – from the farm to the kitchen to the plate in front of you.

After a nice long relaxing lunch, I decided I should probably head to my desk to finish up any “last day” tasks. I combed through emails and figured out the status of my benefits. I responded to some more goodbye emails and shared my personal email address so we could all stay in touch.

Soon enough, I glanced at the clock and it was already 4pm! I was supposed to turn in my devices and badge by 5pm on main campus. My hands started to type a little faster. There were still random things on my to-do list to take care of. Then the minutes ticked by and it was already 4:30pm. I gave up and accepted that there were certain things I wouldn’t be able to finish (a metaphor for life I suppose). I gently closed the lid of my laptop. It was weird to think about never opening the laptop again. And it was weird to know that I would never be able to read the responses to the emails I had just sent.

I shoved everything in my bag and bolted out of the building. I still remember the cold hard click of the door as I pushed it open. It would be the last time I would leave my building. The cold winter air of the Bay Area rushed into my face.

I jumped into my car and zoomed back to main campus again. I turned in my laptop and then went across the street to turn in my badge. The folks were not there anymore, so I gave it to a security guard. He took it, and it was a lot more anticlimactic than I expected. My badge (which was practically an extension of my body for all those years) was now no longer hanging by my side.

Since there was nothing else left to do, I exited the building. I could feel the hard concrete below my feet with each step toward the parking lot. I took in the sights and sounds around me.

I glanced at the random shark fin that was sticking out of the ground. I never understood why that thing was there. I peered over my right shoulder in the direction of the gym, where I had spent the prior months working out. I had formed new friendships (a.k.a. people to guilt you into going to the gym) and was finally able to do one pullup (VICTORY AT LAST!).

On my left, I peered into the Google cafe that made ready-to-go sandwiches and had hot soups and popcorn. A long line of people waited for their sandwiches with their paper orders in their hands. I used to duck in there for a bowl of soup as a post-workout snack, but now that would be a habit of the past. I smiled. Those were good times. There were many good times at Google.

I turned my head back on the path, and my feet pitter pattered down the stairs. I walked past the brightly colored Google bikes parked along the base of the stairs. They were always too big for my legs to comfortably reach the pedals (ah, the downsides of being 4’11”). With a few more steps, I reached my car and got inside. Then I headed home.

For the first time in my adult life, I didn’t have a job anymore. There was no work to go to the next day (Thursday). I didn’t know what I would do, but was ready to take on whatever life would bring.

UPDATE: From the date of this post, you can tell that it’s been a couple months since I left Google, so I’ll be writing more about what I’ve been up to. In the meantime, I gotta go, meeting a friend for lunch at Google. 😉