Welcome strangers, classmates, and friends to my blog. Timothy Jan is my parents-are-angry-with-me-name, but I’ve gone by “TJ” or “Teej” since I can remember.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
My interest in computers and technology began kindergarten graduation night. Little TJ, clothed in a miniature cap & gown, sat in the backseat of his mom’s Nissan Quest minivan and anxiously unwrapped his graduation present: a Gameboy color and a copy of Pok\u00e9mon Blue. From that point onward, I continued to love video games and, although I likely played too much of them, I’m sure my parents (and adult me) were thankful that they kept me from getting into any real trouble while growing up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
At some point in junior high, many of my friends started getting into PC gaming. I had already mostly transitioned away from console gaming to playing Lord of the Rings Online and various RTS games on an utterly incapable Dell home productivity model. I figured that it was about time to acquire a gaming computer of my own. Being an unemployed junior higher, however, I managed struck a deal with my dad: he’d pay for half if I saved for half and was able to justify to him each of my component choices. After many anticipation-filled mornings waiting for the UPS truck, I finally had all the components fresh from Newegg. As I later found out, my father thought building a computer would be like the summer car or motorcycle projects from his adolescence. One would spend an entire summer with friends and their fathers rebuilding a classic car. Much to his surprise, however, later that afternoon I was sitting watching Windows 7 slowly install on my brand new computer. So began a lifelong commitment to maintaining my own hardware, being my own IT support, and becoming increasingly comfortable with troubleshooting and searching the internet for solutions to technical problems.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I would eventually go on to my first round of undergraduate education where I studied Political Science and Economics. Although in the back of my mind I’d always had a love for technology and the hard sciences, I decided I wanted to work in politics and government. I graduated in 2016 and went to work at the Hawaii House of Representatives, first as a legal analyst – writing and reading legislation – and then as a Chief of Staff to a House member. But the longer I worked in politics, the less fulfilling it became and the more I came to regret not studying engineering or computer science. Long hours, low pay, and few career advancement opportunities, combined with the emerging Covid-19 pandemic, catalyzed a change. I quit my job, enrolled at Oregon State University, moved back in with my parents, and returned to school full-time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since summer 2020, I’ve been a full-time student at OSU and have loved every infuriating and joyous moment of planning, writing, and debugging a project or algorithm. Running Monte Carlo simulations in Parallel Programming, creating a bespoke website for my dad’s small business in Web Development, and developing a gambling tracker\/payout calculator web application in Software Engineering I have been some of my favorite projects so far. I even find the minutiae life-giving: I remember texting a software engineer friend of mine expressing how I found even the data structures class fun and engaging. As my time in the program is drawing to a close, I can’t wait to get into the career field and continue pursuing my dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aside from classwork and grinding Leetcode, I continue making time for my hobbies: video games, the gym, fly fishing, skiing, and reading. Recent favorite games have included Final Fantasy XIV Online<\/em>, Apex Legends<\/em>, and Destiny 2<\/em>. I still love reading about political history & philosophy and have also recently devoured Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive<\/em> series, Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem<\/em> series, and Isaac Asimov’s Robots\/Empire\/Foundation<\/em> series. And when not in front of the computer or reading a book, I’m enjoying my time exploring my for-now home of North Idaho, taking in as many lakes, rivers, and ski mountains as I can.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome strangers, classmates, and friends to my blog. Timothy Jan is my parents-are-angry-with-me-name, but I’ve gone by “TJ” or “Teej” since I can remember.\u00a0 \u00a0 My interest in computers and technology began kindergarten graduation night. Little TJ, clothed in a miniature cap & gown, sat in the backseat of his mom’s Nissan Quest minivan and… Continue reading #1: About me<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teejayjan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}