Feb 22: On Reunion Dinners, Graduation and more

February was an event-filled month, so I have a little more to say than usual.

First, the family was finally able to celebrate Chinese New Year again. As I get older, this is pretty much the only time I ever get to see everyone, so I had been looking forward to this one. It was also the first time my side of the family met Kamalya.

The traditional annual family picture.

Khayra did not enjoy the gathering, but it will be okay once she gets more familiar with my cousins.

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Second, I have finally graduated with a MA in International Relations. I thank my wife for allowing me to pursue this vanity project and to the rest of my family for their support.

I am also grateful to my thesis supervisor Dr Barton for his guidance. As insane as it sounds, the only time I've actually met him was during my induction way back in 2019. He's the only lecturer I've ever had who has ever given me feedback that was the length of an essay, but I probably needed it considering I lacked the requisite background in the field.

As a side note, I wonder what the experts in the field make of this war between Ukraine and Russia. Either way, I don't think it's going to end well for Russia, irrespective of whether it manages to take all of Ukraine.

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Third, I've finally completed Red Dead Redemption 2, which was a journey that took longer than my MA. I will agree with some reviews out there that says it starts a bit slow-paced, but all-in-all it was a great game. Compared to Cyberpunk, I would say RDR2 was a technical masterpiece.

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Fourth, I've finally had to retire my trusty old Samsung S8. I decided to keep with my tradition of going with a random Android once every four or five years (which explains why I've owned an LG and HTC before). 

This time, I've gone for a Pixel, which is highly ironic because I've always hated the idea of having to buy into an entire ecosystem (which is pretty much what you have to do with an Apple). With the Pixel, I've bought into the Google ecosystem instead. We'll see how it goes.

Until next month, then.