Jason Yiin's Blog

We're Married!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:08:00 +0000

Details, more pictures and video to follow
For now, you can check out this Flickr photo set of the Yiin/Wong Wedding
Eric & Jessica's Album
Priscilla's Album

Going Back to Toronto

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:08:00 +0000

The past few weeks have been very eventful. I decided to quit Trilogy last week. I will be returning to Toronto and pursuing entrepreneurial interests.

Trilogy is a great company and I had a lot of good experiences here, but I think that now is a good time to move on. I wish all my co-workers and friends in Austin the best.

Christine and I will be returning to Toronto on April 5th, but not before we have a nice going away party.

See you all soon!

FDucks

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 15:55:00 +0000

Check out FDucks (don't forget the D).
It's a stripped down contact list manager that's great for people who move around a lot or have friends who do.
Produced by 2 of my classmates at Waterloo CompEng, Ian Hung and Yen Hsiao. Great job guys!

My FDucks username is jyiin.

California here we come

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 22:41:00 +0000

Christine and I are going to be in LA for thanksgiving and the Bay area from Nov. 25 - 30. Let us know if you'd like to meet up.

Thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 04 May 2005 05:47:00 +0000

The outpouring of support and good wishes has been overwhelming. Thank you all very much. Christine and I sincerely appreciate the sentiments.
In case you're curious, the responses to the most common questions are:

Yes, we know, it's about time. :)
No date has been set yet.
The wedding will be held in Toronto, but we hope our friends and family from all over the world will attend.

Thanks again!

Of Course!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 16:33:00 +0000

   This past Saturday morning, I woke Christine up at an ungodly hour. It was still dark outside. The expression on her face said, "Leave me alone... I want to SLEEP."
   "Trust me," I assured her, "it'll be worth it."
   She had no idea where we were going. We sped off with some food for a picnic. Although I was trying to be mysterious, as we got closer, Christine thought she had figured out what we were doing: going to Mount Bonnell (the highest point in Austin) to watch the sunrise. When we got there, we realized that the sunrise was partially obscured by the trees there. We were saved by Christine's quick thinking, however. She noticed a table that we could stand on to get a great view. We stood and watched the sunrise for a few moments. It had been a long time since either of us had seen a sunrise. The pinks and oranges were beautiful and it was interesting to be able to look down at the rest of Austin being lit up. At that point I pulled out my laptop and said, "I brought my laptop so that we could listen to some music. Any requests?"
   "Whatever. Just pick something."
   "I have this great song that I think you'll really like!"
   The laptop started playing At Last, by Etta James. It's one of Christine's favorite songs and given how long we've been dating, you'll understand why it's appropriate. When she heard the beginning of the song, Christine looked confused and said, "I gave you that song..."
   I just smiled. She hadn't figured it out yet. I got down on one knee and removed the ring from my jacket pocket. She was floored. She looked at the box and then she looked at me. She didn't say anything at all for what seemed like an eternity. She was just looking at me. I asked, "Will you marry me?"
   "Of course!"
   She started to cry. So did I. I put the ring on her finger and we danced to the rest of the song.

Some pictures:

Christine in Austin

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 19:53:00 +0000

Pictures available in the gallery

Austin, Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 14:36:00 +0000

I'm in Austin now and I've been here for almost 2 months. I've just been ridiculously lazy about updating this site. Austin's a really nice city. It kind of reminds me of Ottawa in a way. It's got a really nice bar district and the Colorado river runs through it. It also has a lot of greenery and rolling hills.

I've been living with Mark and Minh for most of the time that I've been here and it's been great to see them a lot more. Avery is just so cute and she's getting big so quickly.

I've really enjoyed my time at Trilogy so far. They've been keeping me busy on interesting projects and the people that I've been working with are fantastic.

There'll be some pictures in the photo gallery soon.

Back in Toronto

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 19:59:00 +0000

It's great to be home.

We ended up going to Goa after all, and that was fantastic. Goa was sort of this unspoiled tropical paradise. Hemant got us booked in this 5 star hotel with a private beach. It was a great way to cap off this trip to India.

After Goa, I spent one more day in Bangalore before heading off to Toronto with a stop-over in Delhi. Some of the guys got together and got me a kurta (I'm probably spelling that wrong), which is this Indian style garment. It was the perfect gift, because I was thinking about getting one, but not sure where to buy one. Here's a sample:

While I was in India, merchants would constantly try to take advantage of me. I would ask them the price of something and they would look at me, hesitate and name an obscenely high price (you could practically hear them adding a "foreigner tax" in their heads). So while I was wearing the kurta, I decided to experiment and go to a few stores to see what would happen. I'm sure they'd know that I wasn't a local, but perhaps they'd think that I was a foreigner who'd been here a while, and thus was aware of the prevailing market-clearing price (which I generally was). The response that I usually got was they'd look at me, snicker, hesitate and name an obscenely high price. :) I also wore the kurta on a final trip to the office to say bye to the guys. I'm really going to miss them.

I had about an hour and a half in Delhi, before I had to get in another plane. What did I do? I took a cab and went to the nearest McDonald's. I got 3 orders of large fries, a chicken maharaja burger, a McCurry pan and of course, a coke. It was absolutely one of the best meals I've ever had. It was so beautiful. I just had to take a picture.

I've been back for about a day now. It's been great seeing friends and family (my aunt and uncle from Oregon are also visiting!). I'll write more about my experience in India and post some pictures a bit later. If you're in Toronto, drop me a line before I leave on the 16th.

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 16:20:00 +0000

Trilogy University is finally over. It's been a great 3+ months, but am I ever ready to get back home. I'll have about a week and half to see my family and friends in Toronto while I prepare for the move down to Austin.

On the last day, we had a project fair where we got to demonstrate the projects that we'd been working on. There was a lot of tremendous technology on display. Looking back at the whole process, I'm actually quite impressed that we were able to do as much as we did in such a short period of time. There's some incredible talent here at Trilogy and the best part is that they're fun to work with as well. After the fair, we headed over to Amoeba for a final TU bar night. I decided to end my 4-month-no-drinking streak and promptly got really drunk (I'll post pictures soon. You'll see what I mean). Most of the night was just a blur of vodka, "bumps" and yelling. Definitely good times.

It's likely, but not certain, that my flight will be delayed by 3 days because we'll be going to Goa. I've heard Goa described as the Cancun of India. It's sort of a TU tradition to take the TU batch on a trip somewhere if 75% of the projects are successful. I'm at the office right now as Mrinal and Sridhar are trying to put the finishing touches on their project, which would push us over the 75% threshold. We'll see what happens. :)

An Interesting Article About Trilogy and Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 06 Sep 2004 14:46:00 +0000

Mirror on the Future?
They ask you to register. You can use austinstatesman:austinstatesman@mailinator.com:austin

Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:03:00 +0000

I've finally decided to put up an image gallery. It's running off my server at home in Toronto, so it'll probably be quite slow. Most of the pictures I've taken while in Bangalore will be up soon.

Christine's Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 15:28:00 +0000

I've been pretty busy working on my TU project for the past little while. I've been enjoying it quite a bit, but there isn't too much I can say about it that I'm sure isn't confidential.

Our CEO, Joe Liemandt, dropped by India recently. As you might expect, he's a great speaker. He really impressed me with his business and technical knowledge. Unfortunately for him, he was here during his birthday and my colleagues were given the perfect excuse to give him "bumps". For those who have never been exposed to this phenomenon, it's really quite amusing. As far as I can tell, when you accomplish something good or if it's your birthday,someone will decide to yell out "bumps!" at the top of their lungs. Everyone within earshot must then converge on the poor victim and begin to open a can of whoop-ass. I have pictures, but I'd fear for my job if I posted them. :)

As great as it was for Joe to visit, I'm really much more excited about the fact that Christine is now here in India visiting me. She's actually been here since Sunday night. I've tried to take her to "safe" restaurants and I'm quite proud to say that she hasn't gotten sick yet. :) unfortunately, I don't think Christine has much to do except for reading while I'm at work. The day after she arrived, I took the day off and decided to show her around downtown Bangalore, which is just beside the hotel, so that she would know a few places to go to shop and eat. I'm not exactly sure why, but there were actually a lot of people openly staring at us while we were walking around. I said "us", but it's really just Christine because people don't stare in my direction when she's not around. :) The first time she walked around by herself, someone followed her for several blocks asking if she needed any assistance and where she was from. I think those experiences have really discouraged her from venturing out too much. There's a lot to see in Bangalore on the weekend though so hopefully I'll be able to show her what a great city this place really is.

Christine and I in an auto-rickshaw

Welcome to the Jungle, We've Got Fun and Games

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 11:43:00 +0000

This weekend we had an outdoor activity day. It was one of those team building exercises. We had some fun on obstacle courses, there were some climbing activities, raft building, climbing, etc. It was a good time.

The most "interesting" part of the day was when we got to walk across this tight rope about 25 feet above the ground. It wasn't too hard because you could hold on to ropes as you crossed and it didn't seem dangerous at all because you were strapped into a harness and a safety line at all times. After you got to the other side, you strapped yourself to a different line and you could repel down the tree while a guy at the bottom belayed for you. The "interesting" part was when the belaying guy decided to try "dynamic belaying". This basically means that he let me free fall for 20 feet and then he yanked on the line just before I hit the ground. I still can't believe I jumped.

It was only about 20 minutes from the office. I was amazed at how quickly Bangalore went from bustling city to jungle. I saw a few monkeys and Vijay said he saw a cobra. Here are some pictures:

There's also a video of the guys playing a Hindi singing game on the bus ride over. I'll post it later if I get the chance.

Monsoon

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 05:35:00 +0000

Monsoon season is supposed to be pretty much over here in Bangalore, but we caught up in one heck of a storm last night. Bill, Joe and I went to a restaurant that's just around the corner from our hotel called Spiga for dinner. As soon as we left our hotel, it started to drizzle a little. By the time we were done with dinner, it was coming down extremely hard. Joe said, "since we're going to get soaked, we might as well walk." I thought, I might actually make it back before I got too wet so I started to sprint back, but I got soaked pretty much instantaneously. The drainage system here isn't great, and I had to wade through ankle high water (DJ said he had to wade through waist-high water!).

We also went to check out a live band, Thermal and a Quarter, at Zero G last night. It was a good show. They had some catchy songs, and excellent musicianship.

I have a cell phone here now. If you want to call me from North America, you have to dial 011 91 9880009273. Although, I wouldn't do it too often since it's super-expensive. You can send me an SMS for free by sending an email to though (the plus sign is not a typo).

A Free Weekend in Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sat, 10 Jul 2004 12:01:00 +0000

I've been even busier than usual lately. This past week I was working on this huge TU assignment that has occupied all my time, but it's done now. I think I'm going to get another one on Monday, but this weekend, I'm completely free. Although I've been in Bangalore for a weeks now, this is the first free weekend I've had.

On Friday, I went to a club called Purple Haze with Joe, Bill, Vijay, Mrinal and DJ. It was quite good. They played a lot of rock and the atmosphere was awesome. I was telling DJ that I wanted to check out Electronic city (it's an area in Bangalore that contains a lot of Bangalore's largest IT companies). Luckily for us, DJ knows some people at Infosys and we were able to get a tour of their campus. Infosys is probably the most well-known IT company in India. Their campus was extremely impressive. It's probably the nicest company headquarters I've ever seen. It's even nicer than Microsoft's. Check out the pictures.

Happy Birthday Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 15:07:00 +0000

If you're in Canada right now, I hope you're having a great holiday.

India's been quite nice so far, and I've really enjoyed experiencing some of the nuances of its culture. Although lately, I've been a little homesick. I miss my family, my Christine, my friends and even all the silly little amenities that I can't seem to get over here. The other day, I actually said, "what I wouldn't give for a Walmart India...". Luckily we found this mall called the Forum, which is really nice. It's the only mall I've seen so far that kind of reminds me of the malls back home. It has a lot of stuff including a decent book store and some nice western food. :)

I'm still amazed by the traffic here. I think "right of way" is determined by momentum. Yesterday, we had dinner at a restaurant named Samarkand. Mrinal gave me a ride over to the restaurant with some other TUers. It's pretty fun to get in a car and bob and weave through Indian traffic at night. Here are some pics.

The other North American TUers. This is a horrible picture. From left: Joe, Bill and Vijay

I think this applies to the entire city.

In Mrinal's car. From left: Mrinal, DJ, Prem, Me.

Some TUers

Some more TUers

I get a copy of The Times of India everyday. Indian politics is kind of interesting. I'm starting to get a bit of a grasp of it. No one here seems to know anything about Canadian politics or much about Canada for that matter. A few Indians do seem to be aware of American politics though. Do you know what the best part of The Times of India is? Dubyaman (you can use indiatimesjy:indiatimesjy for the registration). I think "Autobiography" is my favourite. :)

It's the Time to Disco

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 15:30:00 +0000

On Friday night, there was a Trilogy event at a night club called Zero G. Zero G's a very nice club. It's on top of a medium sized office building and has an open ceiling. Although it's taken me a little while to adjust to a lot of things in India, music isn't one of them. Indians listen to a lot of the same music that we listen to, except for Hindi music, but I'm starting to gain an appreciation for that too. A lot of the time, I'm in my hotel room and since I don't have any Internet access, I end up watching Hindi music videos. My favourite Hindi song is definitely, It's the time to disco. It's catchy. :) They also played that Punjabi MC song, and when it came on, I tried to dance bhangra style with all the other Indians. It was quite embarassing. :) Luckily, there are no pictures! What I do have a picture of however, is a cow crossing the street. Enjoy. :)

Second day in India

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 15:46:00 +0000

TU's been great. Really interesting. I think they'll be keeping me quite busy while I'm here. I've been eating solely Indian food since I've gotten here. Trilogy's been providing us lunch and dinnner (although I hear that'll stop next week). It's better than I thought it would be. I'm still pretty jet-lagged and a little bit culture shocked. I love the fact that there are cows on the road. I really like cows. I think they're very cute. When I arrived in Delhi, I saw a little boy riding one. In Bangalore they just roam around. I don't think anyone even owns them. I took a bunch of pictures which I'll post soon. Our hotel is nice, but the Internet is ridiculously expensive (I guess that's expected). Luckily, I finally got a computer at work. A Linux box. :) The Indians at Trilogy have been super friendly and nice too. I'm very anxious to get to the projects parts of TU so I'll get to see these Indian geniuses in action. :)

I'm in India

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 05:28:00 +0000

I'm here in Delhi, safe and sound. My flight for Bangalore leaves at 6:30 this morning. There was a big delay in Toronto. By the time I went through the monstrous lineup at the airport and got to the hotel it was about 1 am. I rather like Delhi though. In some ways, it reminds me of Taiwan, which of course I love. I'm going to shuffle off to sleep, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it. I'm so excited about the first day of TU tomorrow. I'll post more then and hopefully, I'll be able to post some of the pictures from convocation as well.

Mark and Minh had a Girl!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 17:25:00 +0000

Check out Mark's webpage to hear how Avery Faith Chien made her entrance into the world.

Website Goodies

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 00:44:00 +0000

A few new goodies are on this page now.

On the panel on the left, there is a "Skype me!" button. If you haven't tried Skype, give it a whirl. It's a free computer to computer voice over IP service. Skype's the best such service that I've ever used and everyone I know who's tried it thinks the same. One reason I'm promoting it is that since I'll be staying in a hotel in India, long distance will probably be ridiculously expensive. So Skype me instead.

Also, there's a Java applet that lists the time in a few cities that I might be in on the left. The orange XML icon is an Atom feed. It's used in the same way RSS is. If you read a lot of blogs, you should try using RSS and a feed aggregator. I like Bloglines personally, but there are a lot of good ones. If you don't know what I'm talking about then just read my website as you normally would, but as I think Evan Jones once said, "Reading websites? That's so 90's."

Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 05:51:00 +0000

The summer's been great so far. I haven't had this much time off since high school. I've been relaxing and enjoying myself for the most part while trying to tie up loose ends before I leave.

My aunt Jane came from Oregon to attend a wedding and we got to spend a week with her. It wasn't a very long visit, but luckily we got to spend a lot of time together. It was nice. It was like old times. I mentioned to my aunt that I was thinking about buying a digital camera and she and my uncle went out and bought me a svelte digital elph. It's an awesome camera. Thanks to them, I'll be able to take lots of pictures in India. :)

I know a few more details about my trip to India now. I'll be leaving on the evening of my convocation ceremony (June 19) and arriving in Bangalore on the morning of my first day (June 21). I'll be staying in a hotel for the duration of my stay and I'll be back in Toronto on Oct. 1 for a while before I relocate to Austin.

TU

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 20 May 2004 04:17:00 +0000

I wrote a little bit about Trilogy university in my previous post. Here's an article about TU that was published in Harvard Business Review.

Don't Mess with Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 03 May 2004 22:08:00 +0000

It's official now. I'll be working full-time at Trilogy Software Inc. in Austin, Texas. I think working at Trilogy is going to be amazing. I'm so excited about it. I didn't get to see much of the city, when I interviewed because I had to leave right away to go on the cruise, but my god-brother, Mark, works at Trilogy and he seems to really like it in Austin. One of the best things about working at Trilogy is the opportunity to go to Trilogy University (TU). I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's sort of a 3-4 month boot-camp / training session where you get to learn about how Trilogy operates and get to know some people that you're going to be working with. This year it's going to be in Bangalore, so I'll be in India near the end of June.

You know what's odd? I was only that cruise ship for about a week, but now that I'm walking around on level ground again, I feel a little bit disoriented. It's almost as though my body expects the ground to sway back and forth slightly. Kev says he feels the same. Go figure.

While I was on a snorkeling excursion, I had to walk around with a bunch of equipment and I had to try to keep from dropping it. While trying to avoid dropping my snorkel, I dropped my digital camera. It doesn't seem to work anymore and even the flash card that was inside somehow got wiped. On the bright side, through the wonders of digital photography, I still have about a gig of pictures from this cruise. Here are some choice cuts:

By the way, does anyone really want a Gmail account? Apparently, I'm allowed to invite two people to get an account (although Christine already nabbed one). Let me know if you're interested.

I'll be in Waterloo for the week visiting Christine.