Ice Cream, Not Diamonds, and Fireflies oh my!

 I think I forgot to mention previously our trip to the Museum of Ice Cream in Manhattan, so I'm adding it here! 

Eat as much ice cream at you want

The famed sprinkle pool

banana banana, pink banana

Every room had a delightful treat in the form of something interesting, and in many rooms, limitless ice cream. The first room meet us with coconut chocolate twist; other rooms had a variety of flavors. Teacup's favorite flavor was the bagel with strawberry ice cream (strawberry and cream cheese twist if you wanted that instead, but she wanted pure strawberry), covered in everything bagel spice. Actually pretty good, but my favorite was probably the first, because I actually really like coconut. 

But more recently we have been on other adventures of note.

The Bronx Zoo was great fun! Also we had to go 3 times because it's huge and we didn't see the all of it the first two times. Though we did see the red panda 3 times as the Monorail was a hit, and spent a lot of time in the tree trek, both going through the obstacle course and playing with sticks in the play zone at the end.

red panda!

Bronx zoo has many types of deer

Building tents

Teacup became quite the tent expert.

Fourth of July was a blast (pun intended). Though it was almost a washout due to high heat that day and powerful storms the previous day, things cooled off just in time, and we were able to go to a nearby town to catch the fireworks for Teacup's probably last 4th for a few years in the USA. 

Since we had gotten a membership to Bronx Zoo, we figured we would also visit Central Park Zoo. So we did that on a day we went into the city for a round of the Escape Game. Teacup was more impressed with our close up with a bear than with the gorillas at Bronx Zoo. For the Escape Game, Teacup was a great help solving puzzles as we traveled through time to save the future!

Finally, the recent highlight was a wild firefly adventure to upstate NY: camping and mining at Herkimer Diamond mines. (For those new to the stone, it is not a diamond but instead a type of quartz crystal found in Herkimer county, NY.)

a handful of small Herkimer diamonds

Hammering open rocks

campfire! s'mores soon followed

KOA is a camping resort, so the campsite has access to a lot of nice features like a playground and a pool and a stream, and cabins and glamping pockets for those not into tents. But as it was Teacup's first real camping adventure, tent was the way we went. At night we found a magical wonderland of twinkling fireflies, the forest trees looking like Christmas. We checked out the mines during the day, and while we didn't find a lot of the double-terminated quartz crystals, we had a great time beating up rocks with hammers. After working hard in the mines, we cooled off with a dip in that (icy!) pool. Then more s'mores, more fireflies, and amazing stars. So all in all, a perfect first camping trip. 

Ice cream at Bellvale Creamery on the way home

Now it's back to packing and paperwork, and Teacup is in camps for a few weeks. 

Poked, Prodded, and Lego'd

 Since the end of the school year (and kindergarten graduation) and the beginning of Camp Mom, most of my time has gone to the efforts of moving and parenting (camp is forthcoming). This has included things like an all-the-tests visa health checkup (blood draw, x-ray, booster vaccine, and general checkup) and lots of calling up various contractors for scheduling moving tasks. I've got a hilariously crowded calendar these days, to the point that looking at it gives me calendar claustrophobia.

That's not to say there has been no time for frivolous things. I made time to take a short day in the city for tea. 

Tea at Cha &

Flight of tea from Cha &

Harney & Sons Soho 

Tie Gyuan Yin ice cream from Ten Ren NYC store

We also went to Ohio for a long weekend to visit one of my best friends (friends since the second grade!), and have some tasty toasted marshmallows over a backyard fire pit with the kids, chasing fireflies, and playing at the local playgrounds. 

A pretty mid flight sunset on the way home

Back in NJ we also ran off to NY to visit Legoland and its many wonders.

And on the way back, a visit to Bellvale Farms ice cream, because if you've had it, you know why we had to stop on the way home. We first heard about it visiting Maskers Orchards (most apples per cost of all the farms we've tried, and some of the best variety), so if you're out this fall looking for apple picking anyway, and don't mind a line for your ice cream, that's a trip worth making.

So all this is to say, we're still making time for fun, between the chores.

5 years into coding, and I'm going adventuring

Oh, has it been 5 years already since I learned to code? Why yes, yes it has.

A lot has happened: I got a job in NYC, moved to NJ, learned a lot about software engineering, and spent most of my time divided between coding and parenting. I love software engineering, even more now than when I started. Parenting is every day more and more fun (yes, despite the hard parts) and watching my child grow is a reward that builds by the day.

I've got a garden; it's delightful.

Claude exists. My writing style tended towards em dashes and stylistic groups of 3, and other classical writing techniques, and I have had to adjust so people don't spend so much time wondering if I am AI. Maybe they still do. Probably, they probably still do; people like displays of literary technique to be solely the demesne of large language models and no longer the realm of mere earthly mortals with their silly flesh and blood. It's not just that I wrote like that before, but also that I have a hard time breaking life-long habits. Of trios, em dashes, and not just/but also's, I alas cannot break free.

More relevant is that Claude is a new tool, the likes of which I have enjoyed using. I am excited to see how much it can do. Also I move with trepidation because, like all new tools with vast resource usage and world-changing levels of impact, I am wary of what it will do and how it will be used. That said, I have used it, and I will probably keep using it as an aid.

Catching up done--now what is next?

OMG I am moving to Taiwan!

Or at least, that is the plan. We are moving to Taiwan at the end summer for a few years, if all plans go right. In the meantime, we're kicking off adventures galore, trying to pack as many area bucket list items in as possible. We weren't sure for a while but started preemptively playing this spring, just in case, so we already have some fun adventures behind us. I've promised my former coworkers to share the awesome adventures, so here we go. If you're here for the words and not the pictures--

Who am I kidding. TL;DR, let's go to the photos!

New York State: We really wanted Teacup (as I shall call the little one from hence forth) to know how maple syrup is made, so we went on an adventure to find the real stuff, and learn how it goes from tree to bottle. Also we brought some back home with us, because it was delicious. (Also, their cafe made french toast waffles. Incredible. Finding Home Farms if you're interested in the next maple weekend in future springs.)

NYC: dinner at Lillie's Victorian Establishment

A delightful NYC restaurant, we enjoyed a fancy family dinner surrounded by flowers and Victorian-themed decor. Teacup was delighted despite being exhausted from a fun Take Your Kid to Work Day. 

Branch Brook Park cherry blossom season: I've dragged the family to this park every spring for picnics aplenty and bubbles galore. This year, we immortalized Teacup's childhood joy with extra pictures. With over 5,300 cherry trees spanning 18 varieties, the flower season lasts about a month, different tress blooming at different times. 

 

An elegant weeping cherry tree, because it's gorgeous

 No no, not Branch Brook; this one is from a DIFFERENT park. So it's a different adventure. Right? I was driving back from work one day, and it was so pretty I had to pull over and capture the view. Yes, it's real. Also, I have a bunch of less-pretty angles in my photo albums, that are still way too pretty. 

Universal Studios Epic Universe: Teacup loves How to Train Your Dragon, her father loves Nintendo, he made it happen! Really fun adventure, and apparently Teacup loves roller coasters and misters. We rode Hiccup's Wing Gliders a lot, and played in the misters to cool down.

NYC The Summit: I had heard from my friends that this was a really cool place to go with the kids, and indeed it was fun! Pictured: the Bubble room

Strawberry picking: STRAWBERRIES. So sweet when you pick them yourself. 

NYC: This had been on my list to do for a while, and I finally got to try it. Tea Around Town, a tea party on a bus. It's got a glass roof so you can see all the tourist sites; the host did some live singing as we drove; and yes, it is pretty hard to drink hot tea while on a moving bus. But they provided tea tumblers with caps, so we managed. There's a full tray of high-tea style sweets to go with the ticket, too, so it's a treat.

We've got more adventures scheduled locally, in between the packing and paperwork. And once we get to Taiwan, I'll be using this blog to share updates on Taiwan adventures (and food). Wish me luck in learning Mandarin!

Coding and a Cuppa: the similar flavors of programming and tea

Today started with a Taiwanese black tea to smooth over a too-early morning, steeped twice, and progressed into a gentle pomelo oolong to ease a brewing headache. I've been a lover of teas since my teens, and like many tea-drinkers, my tastes have changed over time, with both my palate and my knowledge expanding over the years.

Coding is much newer to my life. Though I first learned HTML and some CSS as a teen, I began learning Javascript last fall, and graduated a coding bootcamp (the Grace Hopper program at Fullstack Academy) last month. During the process of learning to code, I found many parallels between my tea journey and my coding journey.

Tea requires patience, and some degree of precision. Steeping doesn’t hurry just because you are in need of a caffeine fix! It’s like waiting for your code to compile; the wisest course of action is to just wait. Compiling can’t be rushed, but like how tea steeped too long or with too-hot water becomes bitter, errors can make your code unpalatable to the compiler. But both are surprisingly flexible, too--code can be written many different ways, just as tea can be brewed hot, cold-brewed, brewed stronger with more leaves, re-steeped many times, made with milk and sugar or lemon and honey, or more! 

Speaking of a multitude of choices, programming comes in a variety of languages and libraries, just as tea comes in different forms. Java or Javascript, Kotlin or C#; React or React Native, Firebase or Postgres--the oolongs and green teas and black teas, the fruits and flowers and spices we add--some people love them all and try many; others have a favorite they specialize in. 

CSS and React working together

In teas I tend towards diversity: I love oolong and black and green and pu-erh and white and herbal. However, I am not usually a huge lover of rooibos. At least, not to drink plain. I have a special love for Harney & Sons rooibos chai, of which I always keep a tin for my cinnamon-chip chai cookies! In the same way, there are parts of coding I’m less a fan of than others--but as I gave rooibos a chance and found a place I loved it in, I find I really appreciate ‘the chores’ of coding as they enhance the project as a whole. Writing API routes, for example, is less fun to me than crafting the user experience with a beautiful and responsive frontend; but without routes, there couldn’t even be a frontend! And it’s the many routes that let a user interact with a site, bringing it to life and giving substance to the app. On their own, API routes are not my cuppa; but with the butter and cinnamon chips of a full stack web app, they’re an essential ingredient of something I love, and therefore something I want to invest in.

I might find more fun in UIs than APIs, but that doesn’t mean everyone is the same. And I’m glad of it! I’m not afraid to pair-program with a teammate whose enthusiasm for routes turns the process from an important task to something a little more fun. And if they’re less than happy to be digging into the details of flexbox, I won’t judge, even if I could use a little more flexbox time myself. Everyone has different tastes, and there’s nothing wrong with having preferences. I never liked Lipton’s sweet tea--but for some people it’s a heaping teaspoon of sweet memories, or just lands on the right tastebud. 

For that matter, if I’m trying to get someone to try tea, and the only tea they’ve liked so far is Lipton’s sweet tea--you better believe I’m glad they liked it, even if I don’t myself, because getting into any tea is an entry point from which people can learn to love other teas! Maybe in a couple years, I’ll have helped them grow their tastes to include Cinnamon Spice, or a sweet chai, or a boba tea, or anything else that we can enjoy together. Meanwhile, drawing people into coding may start with taking something they’ve enjoyed before--like designing print layout or routing calls to the right people--and helping them see the similarities until they understand the coding challenge, and then appreciate it, and then love it for itself.

Growing an appreciation of new teas takes time, and so does learning new parts of coding, but both are worth it. I’m always eager to try a new tea, and I can’t wait to dig into new languages and new libraries. Whether I’d love coding as much as I do without first learning to love tea is up for debate, but one thing’s for sure--a good day’s code starts with a good cup of tea close at hand!

Hour a Day

 It's been a while since my last post, hasn't it? Oops!

I've been up to a lot in the meantime. One thing I have learned in the meantime is the power of an hour a day.

Last spring I had a baby. Then, last fall, when she was 6 months old and started having a regular bedtime before mine, I found I had an hour a day in the evenings. So, during my bedtime pumping session, I began learning JavaScript with free online classes.

You may have guessed I enjoy website design, between this blog and me having an author website. I first taught myself HTML and some (basic) CSS as a teen, back in my fanfiction-writing days. So I thought I might software engineering, too, and figured I'd start these free classes to see if I was right.

In spring, I applied to a coding bootcamp, and was accepted.

Last week, I graduated from the Grace Hopper program at Fullstack Academy, as a full stack software engineer!

It started with an hour a day. 

An hour doesn't seem long--but that's half the point. If you can steal an hour of your day to learn, or produce, you can do a lot.

It didn't end with an hour a day (the Grace Hopper program took about 50-60 hours a week of time for the junior and senior phases, and I couldn't have done it without childcare and support from my family), but three months of an hour a day was enough to get into the program. An hour a day for a few months opened up a world of possibilities.

Can you write 500 words in an hour? Then you can write a 100K words in under a year--and you can spend an hour of editing for the rest of the year for a story you're ready to shop.

Can you make a pair of earrings in an hour? Then you can 365 pairs in a year, and have an inventory ready to sell. 

An hour is powerful. 

Have faith in yourself and what you can accomplish. It might not be easy, it might not be quick, but consistency, determination, and belief in your own abilities can open a world of opportunities.

Flower Rainbow

After checking my Google album, I realized I had collected over 1000 flower pictures for my #floweraday posts on G+. So in celebration of exceeding 1k flowers, here's a flower rainbow!

May your day be colorful, and touched by joy and beauty.