Merry Xmas folks! [Obligatory Futurama Refererence]
Guess I haven't updated this blog in a while. Over the past 5 months, I've been busy with a few things.
Apartment Move
In August, my parents came over from Canada to visit me and to help me move. As I had discussed previously, I had wanted to move to a different apartment unit because studio I was renting was too cramped, especially for WFH. I'd say that the move was mostly successful... I somehow lost my SD cards containing 6 years worth of photos. Luckily, I found the SD cards yesterday in a lunch box along with some old Detective Pikachu Pokémon cards. Overall, August was okay aside from the COVID-19 Delta Variant taking hold of the world.
LeetCode
The primary reason why I haven't updated this blog in a while is because I have been busy preparing for job interviews. Since 2015, I've been working with the same team on the same projects. The reason why I stayed on the same team for so long is because I wanted some stability after my really hectic university days. I also liked the folks that I worked with. I wouldn't describe the work I do as particularly easy, but after 6 years, I was getting kind of bored.
Between September and early November, I've been busy grinding problems in Cracking the Coding Interview and LeetCode. Turns out that I had forgotten a lot of the fundamentals since I last interviewed 7 years ago. I think I'm better prepared now compared to back then. I can now implement Radix Sort, though Dynamic Programming still eludes me somewhat...
I ended up failing my interviews with a certain company; however, I was able to pass my interviews for a different team at my current workplace. Funny enough, I think my experience with system software development prepared me better for the interviews that I passed than Cracking the Coding Interview and LeetCode.
December
This month has mostly been a month of nothing. During this time, most folks are OOF for the holidays, so work grinds to a halt. I decided to take 3 weeks off. Around this time, a new COVID-19 Omicron Variant was discovered and is quickly spreading. As a result, I decided not to book a flight back to Canada to visit my parents.
Vacation
First week of vacation was pretty good. I got my COVID-19 booster vaccine. Also saw Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres. Sword Art Online Progressive and Spider- Man were particularly good. Eternals lacked character development.
The second week has been pretty boring so far. I've been binge-watching South Park on HBO Max and playing Pokémon HeartGold Version (which is surprisingly challenging compared to more recent Pokémon main series titles).
I really do miss seeing my family and friends in Canada. Hopefully, the COVID-19 pandemic reaches some sort of steady-state in 2022 so that I can go visit them.