Life Updates
Hey, so, it's been a while since I posted. I guess I just wanted to post and update. Let's see… what has happened
since February 2020....
Family

Yeah, so, we're having a baby. If you didn't see that on other social media already. He's due at the end of July.
Lockdown
As you and everyone else knows, the world has been in lockdown since March due to the outbreak of
SARS-CoV-2 causing
COVID-19. My company sent us all on mandatory work-from-home
on March 12th and I haven't been across the bridge into San Francisco since. Working from home …
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New Car
After more than 10 years of avoiding it, I've finally rejoined the ranks of the private-car-owning bourgeois. $SPOUSE
and I spent the past few weeks doing research and reading reviews, spent Saturday and Sunday test-driving a bunch of
vehicles, and ended up buying a brand new Cosmic Blue 2020 Honda Insight yesterday
afternoon.

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Austin, TX
Went to Austin, Texas this weekend for a work event; it was my first time in Austin so I figured I'd write up some notes:
- Cities are so indistinguishable now. Downtown Austin has the same restaurant and store chains as San Francisco, Boston, Miami, or any other American city.
- Its is weird how much Confederate stuff there still is for the supposedly-liberal Texas city. Until '96, the Capitol Visitors Center was administered by the Daughters of the Confederacy; lots of Confederate flags.
- Live music everywhere, even at the broiest bars near the hotels — even at the hotel bars! This …
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Twenty-Teens in Review
Well, here it is, the end of 2019, the end of the decade. 🎉 The end of the decade of my twenties, so probably the most
eventful decade I'll experience. Ten years ago, I was at my parents' house in Fall River, a senior in college
on my last Christmas break of all time. I'd just accepted an offer from
Yelp to start as a Software Engineer in June, 2010, reporting to Neil Kumar. The world
was uncertain before me. Today, I am sitting in my own house, married, working for my third employer, sitting
pretty in …
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DMV
I went to the DMV today to get a REAL ID upgrade for my license, and to get it reprinted
with my correct address so I don't need to carry the paper change-of-address confirmation any more.
The DMV is always a fascinating microcosm of human behavior, and a unique experience to simultaneously
see the best and worst in people.
For those of you who haven't been in a California DMV, the process follows several stages:
- (optional) Make an appointment. The North Oakland DMV doesn't have any appointments available in the next six
months, and then next DMV available anywhere in …
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Crime Happened
Today we got a nasty surprise in the form of an email from my next-door neighbor informing me that somebody had
attempted to break into our home! An hour later (while I was on my way home from work), we got another email
indicating that the suspect had been arrested.
Apparently, someone was messing around with the lock on the gate to our backyard and my next-door neighbor yelled at
them. They hopped the fence, so he called the police and yelled at them some more. They fled. The police came
, patrolled the neighborhood, and caught
the guy …
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