Thuy’s Farewell Post

Knowing that I’m sitting at this computer, being in this lab for the last time is a heartbreaking moment for me, especially given that I love this job so much (I hope everyone knows that by now T.T, it is the reason why I am only working 5 hours a week, I wanted to be a TA this year, but I could not give up this job, so I’ve gotten an exception to only work one 5-hour shift per week).

Before I you read this post, here’s my last classical music rec on here. You can listen to it while reading this post, if you would like. I think it gives a nice “farewell” mood. This is one of my absolute all-time favorite calming piece, Schumann’s Geistervariationen (“Ghost Variations”). It is my go-to piece when I feel stressed out.

Let’s start out by how I came to this wonderful place. It was Spring 2019 when I was a Freshman, not knowing what I wanted to major in, and having a quasi “life crisis” as a 20-year-old. I wanted to try out design and development, just because it seemed like the cool, new “upcoming” thing. My friend Kevin told me about this application, and I decided to apply. I think Kevin got the offer waaaaay before me, so he must have been super qualified. I did not get my offer around the same time that he did, so I was very nervous.

I was in Vietnam over Summer 2019 when I got the STA take-home post-interview assignment. I was desperate to prove myself fit for the job, so I tried realllllly hard for that assignment (I did spent more than 2 hours on that assignment please don’t tell Suloni). To me at that time, getting the job meant a chance for me to find out whether I will like design and web development or not. I designed this slideshow on how to style PowerPoint slides, and at that time it was one of those projects that I was so proud of.

I was so happy with how the slides turned out. I got the job, and I remembered being very flattered that Suloni really liked how the assignment has turned out!

Fast-forward to approximately two-and-a-half year later.  A lot of things has happened: I changed my major to Computer Science, got a full-time job offer as a Software Engineer at Facebook, still am a classical music / piano maniac, am about to graduate in 3 days, and am dreading the thought that I will miss this job terribly. I have learned and grown so much during this job, and I am so grateful to have had this experience. I would not have traded this for anything else, and it is one of these college memories that I will never forget. I know that I am where I am today partly because of this job and all that I’ve gained from it. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

I wanted to take some time to give personal shoutouts to everyone here (stealing the idea from Abriella, sorry Abriella you always have the best ideas :p):

Kevin: thank you for having introduced me to this job. It is the best of on campus and by far one of the best jobs I’ve ever had (albeit I’ve only had 6 and I like 3 of them :p, I guess I’m not that picky). Hope you’re doing well in Boston!

Jake: it was super fun getting to know you! I still remember when we worked together late on Tue Thurs when we first started out, you’re a super cool person to get to know! Hope you are doing well.

Jalissa: you are so positive and kind, and I enjoyed talking to you a lot! I miss doing CS 312 assignments with you, I hope you are doing well!

Megan: you’re super cool and soo talented. It was my pleasure to be able to work with you in CLIO!

Poonum: you are so wonderfully talented and are such a great project manager. I’ll keep reading your food blog, please keep them up!

De’sha: you are so talented and artistic. My first impression of your work is all of your floral patterns! Also I love your fashion <3.

Athena: my STA orientation buddyyyyyyy! You are so sweet, thank you for always checking in with me on school. I love your food Instagram, please keep updating them.

Mounika: I won’t forget that day when Suloni told us to go on Speedway to get snacks during work! Thank you for all your help in web dev when I was still a freshie at the web inspector tool. I hope grad school is going well for you!

Angie: my other STA orientation buddyyyyyyyy. You are so artistic and talented and fun to be around, I’m always so impressed by your illustration and animation.

Miguel: you are sooooo detailed oriented. I love how engineering-like / research-focused all of your works are. I hope you’re doing well!

Bridget: you are such an incredible artist and designer. Your collage work was probably my favorite, it inspired me to do a lot of my collage work currently. I hope you and your dog are doing well!

Ishan: your WP demo video is so funny! I still remember your black background and half of your head on Zoom LOL. I hope you and your cat is doing well! Hope you’re enjoying Rice University!

Adrian: I will miss chatting with you every Wednesday when we’re the only two in the office. Thank you so much for the bread you shared with me, and thank you for trying your best to make it to my piano recital, I appreciate you a lot!

Hoa: stay in touch, my fellow Viet friend! I’ll remember getting Sip Pho with you!

Rachel: I love talking about classical music with you! Your illustrations are amazing, hope you have a great time in grad school, you rock!

Marianne: you are always so sweet, I love your cute Slack emojis! Happy graduation!

Cristina: your makeup color palette is soooooo diverse I’m jealous! And you are so positive it’s always such a pleasure just chatting with you. Happy graduation!

Ingrid: I love talking to you about web dev, you are such a fast learner. You will do amazing in Boston, best of luck on any future adventures you have!

Stacy: thank you so much for all you have helped me! You are incredibly supportive, and I’ve learned so much from you as a web developer. I wish you the best in anything you do!

Chris: thank you so much for all of your patience during Chatter, especially when I didn’t know anything about Vue. More than just an amazing dev, you are a wonderful teacher. It was a pleasure for me to learn from and work with you.

Ruben: thank you for all of your help in projects! I enjoyed talking to you about the dev / game industry in general as well, thank you for all of your advice.

Sheryl: Sheryllllllll! I believe the first time I met you was in AET 310, you seemed so chill and cool and I didn’t know we would cross paths again in the STA Program. You are such an amazing artist and friend, everything you do is so aesthetic. And your fashion is on point!!! I hope you enjoy yourself at Carnegie, I know you will do amazing!

Abriella: you are one of the best artists I’ve ever met in real-life. Your work ethic and attention to details is incredible, it inspires me to do the same. I love working on projects with you and twinning on clothing with you unintentionally sometimes! Thank you for all the snaccs you’ve shared with me in the office. You’ve also introduced me to Takis, my stomach will probably thank you somewhere down the line in maybe 20 years or so :p. Thank you for being so supportive of me in work, school, and piano, I appreciate you a lot. Thank you for carrying the mochi ice cream when I could not wrap the mochi for the love of my life haha. And for the cute gel nails on my birthday, that was the first time I got my nails done <3. I know you will do amazing at Deloitte because you are sooo talented and hard-working! Please keep in touch <3.

Maddy: Maddyyyyyyy you were such an amazing STA and Art Director. Your design eyes are incredible, you’ve taught me so much about design and layout and UI / UX, I’m incredibly grateful for you. I look forward to continue following your hand painted signs journey!

Estella: ahhhhhhhh Estella I’m going to miss bothering you 14968742413 times every time I had an error or a bug. You are so patient and kind and chill I felt so comfortable asking you for help. Please continue to update your webtoon you’re such an incredible artist I wish I’m half as cool as you! Ah and I will remember your fashionable flannel as well :p.

Valerie: you are such an amazing artist and are always so supportive, I remember when I first started out, you were always so patient with all of my questions and were always giving me great feedback on all of my training. I don’t think I will be able to find a manager who will offer me snaccs every day in the office, and reached out and cared for me as a friend as well! I love all of your earrings and fashion choices! And OMG YOUR PINSSSSSS!!! Please stay in touch, I will miss you so so much!

Suloni: Suloniiiiiiiiiiiiii! THANK YOUUUU for all that you have done for the STA Program, your talent and passion has brought the program to where it is today, and all of us are so so so grateful for you! The energy that you have brought to the program is so heartwarming, you are the reasons why I think the STA Program is the best job on campus! You are always so supportive of anything we do, and because of that you’ve helped us continue to grow as artists and developers. I will miss all of your cute emojis and boosts on Slack and Basecamp. You inspire your surroundings with your artistic aura, I am so grateful to have you as my manager. Please please please do stay in touch, I will definitely pay visits to the STA office if I come back to Austin to visit (which I definitely will).

Life Updates!

The past semester and this semester was crazy for me! Here are the things that I’ve done (and am doing):

Took Operating System

I took Operating System (OS) with Dr. Gheith! OS is notoriously known as the most difficult core CS class at UT. I was suuuper scared going into it, but I loved the class! I had fun every bit of the way, and I made so many friends (we bond through the struggle T.T)! Dr. Gheith is arguably one of the best professors I’ve ever had throughout my years of schools. The TAs we had, Chris, Daniel, Adeet, Ethan, Palash, and Leanne, were so so helpful. I wouldn’t have been able to get through the class without them.

All of the (mostly) weekly assignments were super challenging, but we got through them all. I especially struggled on p7, virtual memory, and I remembered that Tuesday when I stayed at the lab from around 2 PM – 9 PM just to fix a few test cases. I git stashed so many times because I was frustrated with my code, but I finally got it to pass all chosen test cases!

The final project was the best group project I’ve ever had. Our group, SeaShell, built a “sophisticated shell” (as we claimed). I was on the Frontend team, alongside Rik, Himanshu, and Adhan. Nathaniel and Shreyas worked on file system writing, and Rithik and Rodrigo worked on syscalls. Our shell looks like this:

Our shell supported commands such as ls, cd, pwd, mkdir, touch, rm, etc. We also have a snake game (Rodrigo had this crazy idea and we didn’t think we would make it work, but it did!). We also have a text editor!

On presentation day, we all dressed up in beachy clothing (our SeaShell theme LOL).

I will miss this class and our group a whole lot!

I TA-ed (and am TAing) for CS 313E

One of the reasons why I’m only working at LAITS 5 hours per week last semester and this semester is because I’m being a TA this semester. I’m TAing for Dr. Mitra for CS 313E (the class that made me want to transfer!). Being a TA has been so much fun! I’m especially glad when I’m able to help students clear up conceptual misunderstandings of materials, walk through algorithms, and debug. Many students has told me that it was super helpful, so I’m really glad.

Played in two Piano Recitals

I performed in our Recital of Excellence for PIA 201. I played two short Schumann pieces, Kinderszenen No. 1: Von fremden Ländern und Menschen (Scenes from Childhood No. 1: Of Foreign Lands and People) and Album für de Jugend: Fröhlicher Landmann (Album for the Young: Happy Farmer).

I also got invited to perform in my previous teacher, Yunzhi, end-of-year student recital, where I played Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1. The recital was at Austin’s Steinway Gallery.

Took at Senior Trip with my friends to Hawaii!

I went to Hawaii with my friend group over Winter Break. The trip was a week long. We got lots of good food (super fresh fish) and beautiful sights! I finished the first part of Murakami’s Killing Commendatore while on the trip, and bought Murakami’s Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World at Barnes and Noble in Hawaii.

This Semester

I’m still dying a little this semester, because even without OS and Approximation Algorithms, I’m still taking 3 CS classes (Data Mining, NLP, and Graphics) T.T. But I’m having a lot of fun! I’m super excited to keep working on the classes, and sad to graduate soon. But I’ll come back with more updates before I graduate :).

UTinContext WordPress Web Development

Hello, long time no see!

It’s been a while since I update my blog (since before last Summer-2021, before I leave LAITS for my internship). I’ve been working here still during Fall 2021 and this Spring 2022, but because of my limited hours (I currently work 5 hours per week as an STA), I was exempted from weekly meetings and blog updates. I have a little bit of downtime today, so I decided to update my blog.

I’ve been working on the mockup and Web Development for UTinContext with Estella for the past couple of months. This is my first time using WordPress, so it was a little bit of a learning curve, but it’s not too bad. I’m having fun with the site so far.

Below are some of my mockups.

First Iteration:

Second Iteration:

Third Iteration:

Fourth Iteration:

The client liked the final iteration with the red, so that’s what we went with. I worked with Estella in developing the site on WordPress after. It was my first time working with WP, but it’s not too bad and Estella was super helpful (sorry for bothering you every 20m Estella!). I had some hiccups of not being to to add a JS file (to allow for more dynamic styling, especially with responsiveness), but Estella was able to help me add a JS file which makes it much easier to style the page.

Here’s the link to the site: https://utincontext.la.utexas.edu/