Today I turn 26 years old and it feels like I’m not getting any younger. Last year, besides winter being cold like the year before, I finally finished my master’s degree and completed studying the Advanced Japanese Textbook. While the job search was rough and at times, which made me felt discouraged at times, luckily found a job within 5 months after graduating in the Federal Government, although I had to relocate.

I started working on the 27^th of July and so far, it has been a good experience so far. I will be learning more on various database tools, data warehouses, database administration and more on security (yes, I will be getting a Security+ certification, which is being paid by my employer at the end of this month). Not only that, the transition to living on my own has been going well so far as I finally got used to driving and doing chores own my own. It took some time adjusting to this new life, but I can admit that the future looks bright, providing I do not screw up. I highly doubt I would since I worked so hard to get here. Still, I have to admit that I was lucky.

With that, what does the future holds as I turn 26. Well, a lot of things. While I have to pay for living expenses and student loans while living within my means, I plan on going to at least one convention next year and hopefully start saving up on that soon once I strengthen out my budget. I will announce it in the near future which one I will be going to. In addition, I plan on studying for the N3 next year as I focus more on actual Japanese media and start writing some posts in Japanese only for practice.

To celebrate the occasion, it’s time to share my new place where I will be writing posts and yes, it is clean compared to my previous location. While my setup will change as I earn and save more money, I’m hoping to add another monitor to have a dual or even triple monitor setup (which includes the laptop display), a bigger network attached storage, a server of some sort and solid-state disk upgrades. My new setup consists of a Mid-2012 15” Core i7 2.6 GHz Macbook Pro, 24 inch Apple LED Cinema Display, an old 22 inch Samsung LCD monitor, Surface Pro 2, Mid-2010 2.4 GHz Core i5 Macbook Pro, Bose Speakers, Blue Snowball, 3 TB WD MyCloud NAS and 2 external hard drives.

With that, feel free to say Happy Birthday in the comments below. I will be going out for lunch and dinner alone for my birthday (my parents will be coming to visit this coming Friday), although it will not be anything fancy.

Also, this site’s domain turns 5 years old on the 11^th… Yep, time flies.