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Buddy's Ramblings
December 31, 2025: Happy Early New Year!
The end of 2025 already... looks like I didn't even post in 2024? Where does the time go...
Well the past two years have been pretty good overall. I'm still at CFS trying to make fusion power a reality. The kids are moving up in school -- Ryan started middle school and is really enjoying all the new activities to take part in. The kids and I are all doing Taekwondo and Judo, so we spend pretty much all our free time at the dojang (Korean word for dojo). But it's fun and getting us all into shape!
We took the opportunity these past two summers for big trips -- last year to Japan and this year to a bunch of places in the South Pacific: Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia. We were able to visit some friends, see lots of new sites, and add a couple more countries to our lists!
Sorry for the short update, but we're about to head out to a NYE party -- we'll see if the kids can stay awake this year!
December 31, 2023: Another year is wrapping up, and here I am madly updating my blog before I miss 2023 completely!
This year brought much fun and adventure. Took our first big trip since the pandemic and went to Japan for a couple weeks! Tokyo, Disneyland, and Kyoto! About half of which was things Charlene and I had done our last visit there, and half was new. Overall a great trip! The monkey sanctuary and bamboo forest were pretty sweet (as was the very touristy ninja museum). In preparation I had been learning Japanese via Duolingo and have decided to continue on learning more even after my trip. Let me know if you need help translating something like "I eat breakfast every day around 7 o'clock"!
In order to go on this trip, I took a 7-week sabbatical from SpaceX. It was great! Didn't get everything checked off my to-do list, but it was very nice to have a break from work. Maybe too nice? A couple months after coming back I decided to switch jobs! I've been getting quite concerned about climate change (thanks to reading some of Greta Thunberg's books!) and I got a chance to join Commonwealth Fusion Systems and will help make nuclear fusion a reality (a virtually limitless (mostly) clean energy source). I started a couple weeks ago and am really enjoying learning about nuclear fusion.
We also just got back from a visit to Death Valley and it was super awesome! We were really lucky and there was even a small lake present (the last time was in 2005).
November 27, 2022: Looks like this will be my at-least-once-a-year update for 2022!
I'm still working on Starlink, now managing multiple teams and trying to squeeze in a little coding here and there. Pretty exciting times as always with lots of new things always being worked on!
This past summer we did our semi-regular roadtrip up through Portland, Seattle, and the San Juan Islands, except this time we kept going and spent a few days in Vancouver as well! Nice to be back in the land of Tim Horton's and poutine, even for just a few days.
Got in a couple more trips to Legoland -- stayed at the hotel, tried out the new Unikitty area, found a yummy ramen and cute bao bun restaurant, found Mr. Gold, and were even picked to open the park again!
On the outdoorsy front, we did our first (very short) family backpacking trip, got a second inflatable kayak, camped with friends, and got in some local rock climbing.
Over American Thanksgiving (this past week) we ordered some quality seafood from water2table had some fancy meals, did a day trip up to Whiskeytown National Recreation Area for some relaxing kayaking and gold panning, read, and relaxed. Tomorrow we're all headed back to work and school, at least for a few more weeks before the break for the Christmas holidays.
December 31, 2021: Yikes! Almost missed updating for the entire year of 2021! Let's see: COVID is still here (everyone being at home was a little crazy, but we survived), I'm working on Starlink now (amazing that we're already managing the world's largest satellite constellation). Hoping that 2022 will bring us closer to normalcy.
November 28, 2020: Whoa! Over a year since my last update -- sorry dear reader! A lot has happened this past year!
Early on in 2020 we went to Legoland, and the kids were super lucky to be picked to open the park gates one morning! This time we stayed at the new "castle hotel" which was cool, and we also got to meet up with friends who were there at the same time.Of course, there is a global pandemic! Luckily we're all able to work/school from home (albeit with some adjustment as we're all at home at the same time), and have been mostly staying at home and staying safe. We even bought a giant castle to keep the kids occupied. At first I was a little skeptical, but it turned out to be a huge success. Grocery delivery is something I may consider doing more of even after this is all over. Pretty convenient, even if some of the substitutions the shoppers choose are unusual... at least then it forces me to try new things!
At work we successfully launched (and landed) Bob and Doug to the International Space Station. Since then we've started the "operational" mission, and have launched four more astronauts on the Crew-1 mission. The entire family eager watched the launches/landing together, and it was very exciting to be part of it.
Politics has been a much bigger part of our lives these past few years, and the recent presidential election was no exception. I'm glad of the (eventual) outcome, but still concerned about many things (reconciling the people in this country, averting climate change, equality for all, etc). At least it's now moving in the right direction.
(American) Thanksgiving was a couple days ago. While different, and smaller, than previous years we still managed to have a delicious, fancy dinner.
I hope everyone is able to stay safe and healthy!