January was a pretty big month for me. I had entered my apps into a University of Michigan contest and Checkmate ended up winning 3rd place. I also “released” Instascriber, which got picked up on a couple of tech news sites, including LifeHacker. At the end of January, I socially engineered a Facebook poll to virally get around 60,000 responses before Facebook shut it down. That was pretty fun.

February was a bit slower. I think I mostly ported Mapskrieg to App Engine (though I since reverted it back to the PHP version since App Engine raised their prices like crazy). I think I also interviewed at a couple of places for jobs, but didn’t have any sustained interest from anyone (or with anyone, really).

I must have spent most of March doing iOS programming, because the only blog posts I have are the one about UISplitViewController and the release of <3 Threadless for iPad. The iPad app release was pretty big for me since I had not previously released an iPad app that was much more than a simple scrollview with a main view attached.

In April, I released another iPad app, Mapskrieg. This was a really good way for me to get better with iOS development and to write my own API to use in the app. I believe April is also when I started interviewing for other jobs, including one at Bebarang. I also started working on a freelance app for the University’s Enriching Scholarship event. I guess I never announced it on my blog previously, but here’s the app I worked on.

In May, I started working with Allen Kim on Bebarang, the Netflix for baby clothes. I moved to New York in June, and stayed there to work on the startup for July and August as well. My summer experience deserves a blog post of its own, which I started writing and sorta forgot about. It was really awesome getting mentorship on the ins and outs of starting a business. I got to meet lots of incredible people and learned a ton. I also got to eat some really good food and experience New York. I am super grateful for the opportunity to work with NYC Seedstart and Bebarang. Unfortunately, things just didn’t work out, and I left the company at the end of August.

In September, I noticed a job posting at Threadless, and contacted my pal Chris about it. I attended the Threadless Family Reunion and got a job offer that I couldn’t refuse! I moved to Chicago (actually a suburb of it, Oak Park) in October and I am currently working on cool things at Threadless, including an awesome looking redesign of the site. So far I have learned a ton about actual software engineering (as opposed to the cowboy coding that I’m accustomed to). It is majorly sweet that I’m getting paid to get better at Django and Python (oh, and contribute to the code base, of course). I really couldn’t ask for a better turn of events than to work at a company I’ve long admired (and bought from).

In December, I took a trip to California to hang out with my family (much of whom also traveled to California to hang out). I went to the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot but forgot my fucking bumpersticker!!!! I am really pissed about that. I discovered that my niece and nephew really like Minecraft, and I think I will write a separate blog post about that.

Looking back, I feel I got a lot accomplished in 2011. I think I finally found a good balance between doing whatever the heck I want (and getting paid little) and being a complete corporate slave (and getting paid slightly better). I learned that maybe being a startup founder is not for me (at least in this stage of my life). I want to make an impact in whichever field I work in. I’m still figuring out how to maximize that (while still enjoying life and hanging out with other people, like my girlfriend). I feel like I am finally at the point where my hard work and accumulation of experience have paid their dividends, and it is now up to me to continue working hard and improving every day.

I think my greatest concern for 2012 is that I won’t accomplish as much as I have in previous years. Working a full time job can be hard on side projects, so I’ll try to put in a good effort on keeping those and my hobbies alive. I also want to work on my health, as living in New York and eating all of its food has added a few pounds. I started playing DDR again. It’s fun.

I have a few ideas for side projects that I’d like to work on. One is an open source ifttt clone that anyone can install (on their own server) and write modules for. Another is a redesign of Anime Nano (and maybe a rewrite in Django). I also want to get an aluminum base plate and photopolymer plates made for my letterpress. Finally, I would like to blog more often; shorter blogs, longer blogs, blogs about wacky stuff that I experience.

I want to look back to this blog post in a year, and hopefully I’ll have accomplished many or all of my “resolutions” by then.

If you know me or if you read my blog, you know that I have been a huge fan of Threadless since I first found out about it in 2005. For a while, Threadless was pretty much the only thing I wrote about on this blog.

Last year, I developed an unofficial mobile app for browsing and sharing cool Threadless designs on the iPhone and iPad. This caught the attention of Threadless and I got to visit their sweet office!

I had the chance to visit again for the Threadless Family Reunion and an interview of sorts, and I was offered a job! I am happy to announce that I will join Threadless at the beginning of October.

I am really looking forward to making Threadless even more awesome (and now from the inside as opposed to hacking together an API for myself)!

So I’ve been relatively quiet on this piece of news for a while, but since I’m moving to New York in like, two days, I figure I should post something about it.

A few months ago, I joined up with Bebarang, a startup that’s graduated from the TechArb program at the University of Michigan and has been accepted into NYC SeedStart for the Summer of 2011. The simple pitch is that we’re trying to solve the problem of babies growing out of their clothes all the time. We’re still figuring out the details.

I am super excited (and lucky) to be part of another entrepreneurial incubator program. I gained a whole lot from the awesomeness of RPM10, and I hope the same will be true for NYC SeedStart. My partner, Allen, is super sharp and I think we’ll end up getting a lot of stuff done between the two of us.

Regardless if we exit at $100 billion (or settle for a $50 billion exit), I’m looking forward to living in a new city, getting to know the tech scene and building up a company once again. Stay tuned for updates about my summer in NY!

Since quitting Microsoft and setting out on my own (and even before that), I’ve had to trust that the stuff I am working on is meaningful and worthwhile. This is hard sometimes, especially if the thing I’m working on seems like a gamble. Having done the whole independent hacking thing for a while, I think I’ve built up the rolling reward cycle that Niniane mentions. Some days I’ll feel like I’m underachieving or working on something that no one will find useful. Then I’ll get a donation from someone for Instascriber (this actually happened!!!) or see another 5 star review for my Threadless app and get re-encouraged.

At the end of the day, I think what really separates the employees from the entrepreneurs is the willingness to be unsure about something and still do it. The uncertainty is much greater when you’re working on an unproven idea, business model, or whatever, but then so are the potential rewards, too. And even if you end up failing, you learn something and are better for it.

In some ways, delaying gratification even sort of makes sense. If you immediately were rewarded for doing something innovative, you might lose the passion (like Rocky did) and stop innovating so you can enjoy your riches. While I can’t say that delaying gratification indefinitely would be a good idea, accepting that there will be a delay is probably healthy.

I read somewhere that airports used to get a lot of complaints about the baggage claim taking too long to get started. Travelers would have to wait at the carousel thing and probably got really bored. To fix that, the airports would drop people off at further gates, making them walk further. This longer walk caused the “wait time” at the baggage claim to be shorter, and they got less complaints. Perhaps that’s what happened to me and my fellow travelers.

I would argue that the particular “fix” I described probably shouldn’t be used anymore. Since most airlines charge people to check in bags, I think many don’t even need to wait at the baggage claim anymore (myself included). The fix is an interesting psychological trick, but it doesn’t actually buy anyone time, and it just makes me take longer to get out of the airport. I’d argue that this is interaction design gone bad, but I don’t have a way to confirm that this strategy is the reason we were dropped off so far from the exit. The flight was getting in at 10:30 and we passed numerous free gates, so I can’t think of any other good reason (maybe to save the plane some fuel?).

January and February were kinda uneventful. I was pretty nose down trying to become a good PM at Microsoft. Oh, and I was busy making troll posts about how the iPad was gonna suck and I wrote a lot of book and music reviews.

In March, I attended SXSW and moderated a panel that I had submitted the year before on Student Startups. I met many of my friends who I hadn’t seen in a while and met a lot of cool new people. It was from that experience that I decided I needed to stop doing what I was currently doing and change course so that I could do what I was “meant” to do. Also in March, I was rejected from the one PhD program I had applied to. In hindsight, this was probably a good thing. I’m used to rejection anyway!

In April I officially resigned from Microsoft as a PM after only about 7 months (and 5 managers!) on the job. I knew this was a serious decision. In hindsight, I’m glad I did it. Quitting let me focus on other cool stuff that I was meaning to get into, like iPhone (now iOS) development. In the same month I finally released an app to the iTunes App Store, something I had wanted to do for years.

In May, I moved back to Ann Arbor to be near to my GF, which required me to pack all my crap into my Corolla and drive the whole way. I also flew to New Mexico for a wedding and got to hang out with my family. This probably explains why I have no blog posts for May 2010.

In June I mostly basked in the glory of my funemployment and took it easy (read: I marathoned Lost). I also tinkered with my existing iPhone app and enhanced it a bit, building up my Obj-C chops. I interviewed for some jobs here and there to test out the waters, but none ended up being fruitful. The incompetence of HR departments never ceases to amaze me, but I suppose that’s a topic for a different post.

In July I looked for some more opportunities to work with other companies. I didn’t end up teaming up with anyone, but a conversation I had during an “interview” led me to start development on Checkmate, my second app for the iPhone. I spent a fair amount of July developing and testing Checkmate. I also took a cool part-time gig with the coolest boss in history.

August saw the release of Checkmate, which was featured in a story on Mashable! Thanks, Pete Cashmore! While Checkmate wasn’t (and it still isn’t) the perfect app, I learned a ton from developing it and gained a lot of confidence as well. I also discovered the NPR news story of that time I went on a chocolate factory tour in Seattle!

My September was mostly spent improving Checkmate and learning about how to handle a paid app in the App Store. Doing a paid app is a quite a bit different than a free one. I also spent some time looking for an old printing press and finally scored one on craigslist!

In October, I started working on another app that eventually became ♥s Threadless. This was the biggest undertaking I’ve done so far on iOS, and it also required me to do more complicated work in App Engine than I had done before. I also spent October tracking down supplies for my Letterpress machine, and ended up doing my first prints ever: Giraffe Coasters!

I split my November into days where I’d work on getting better at printmaking (and coming up with stuff like these letterpress business cards) and days where I’d work on the Threadless app. I finally ended up releasing the Threadless app at the end of November. The reception of the app has been great! So far the app has 6 perfect reviews and one 4-star review. That makes me incredibly happy.

This brings us to the current month, December. I started another app engine project that’s not quite ready for public beta yet (though I feel it will be really soon). Because of the app, Threadless was super cool and invited me to their Chicago headquarters. I finally realized one of my lifelong dreams of becoming a Threadless t-shirt model! I’ve also been hanging out in Albuquerque and spoiling my nephew rotten for a few weeks.

And that is my 2010 year in review. One surprising thing is that many times during 2010, I was really down on myself. But looking back, I actually accomplished some neat stuff! I think it boils down to the fact that there’s still a lot of uncertainty in my life, and that’s hard to manage. But I think I’m getting better at managing it every day. In retrospect, 2010 was a great year, maybe even the best (so far).

Looking at 2011, I see a lot of opportunity. I’m going to continue to remind myself that minor setbacks are just that. I’ll push through them and accomplish even more than I did in 2010! My role model for 2011 is this guy:

Hopefully I’ll have some good stuff to report in a year or so!

Last week I took a train out to visit Chicago for a meeting with my favorite company, Threadless! Since I wrote that app I’ve been in contact with the founder et al, and they thought it would be cool for me to check out their offices. I won’t talk about what discussions went on (I’m being held by a “frieNd-DA“), but I can say that the Threadless office is mega sweet!

I got to hang out with some of the developers on Threadless and talked about the site and other random stuff (like t-shirt quality through the ages). I pointed out something that actually ended up being a bug that one of the dudes fixed almost immediately! Talk about transparency. At some point we were talking about how the Threadless t-shirt models are picked. Ivan (super nice guy) mentioned that the photographer might be looking for someone to model a shirt. He ended up replying and I got to model a brand new Threadless shirt in the cold, cold December Chicago air. The shirt’s called …To The Birds. Buy it today!

The Threadless office itself is pretty nice. They moved in relatively recently so it still looks a little bare. Apparently they have big plans for decorating. I was, once again, super star struck by seeing people who I feel I know very well through their pictures on the Threadless site. I met the beard guy, Red the dog (I think it’s a Shiba Inu) and other assorted celebrities. One of the developers I met was the guy in the Mr Tee photo and another was Mario in another shirt (I couldn’t figure out which one). Oh, and I said hi to Colleen and Kristen, who I first met at SXSW!

They let me go down to the warehouse and pick out some shirts to take home. It kind of took all the willpower in my being not to clean them out (they probably would not have let me). I got Upso, Mister Mittens and Houndstooth. I also got a cool I ♥ Threadless shirt that they don’t really sell anymore. Limited edition!

This is probably already obvious, but Threadless is an awesome place with some awesome people making awesome things (mostly shirts). I had a blast meeting the people behind it and I hope I can come back again really soon!

A few months ago, when I was living in Seattle, I went with my .gf and friend to a tour of Theo Chocolate. It’s a chocolate factory about two blocks from where I used to live that does organic chocolate. On the day of our visit, a news reporter was doing a radio spot for NPR on the factory. She asked to follow us around and we told her that was cool.

I looked for the spot for a while online, but I couldn’t find it. Just now, I was looking at searches on how people get to my website, and I found one misspelled query for “Hung Troung” that I followed and led to this blog post. It’s the news report that I appeared in so long ago!

I guess the lady didn’t have a lot to talk about because she used a lot of my random quotes. One of the funniest things that happened on the tour was this little kid (maybe 8 years old?) who kept on spewing non-sequiturs like “My uncle has a tree” and “I like pie” when asking questions. He reminded us of the I Like Turtles kid. I wish the reporter had gotten him in the story.

I also remember the tour guide being a little over the top. Like in terms of being dramatic and stuff. I remember hearing someone say that she just got back from doing some audition, so maybe that was why.

When the factory found out that the reporter had been following us around the whole tour, they felt sorry for us and got us some boxed confectionary candies. That was really nice. I think they were like $20 each or something and we got one each. Score! Thanks, Theo!

Oh, and I think it’s kind of apparent that I mumble a lot, or maybe I was just nervous. I should work on that. Here’s the audio of the story and the transcription (Fair use?):

Remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Where four lucky kids win a tour of Willy Wonka’s secretive candy plant? Well, Theo Chocolate isn’t that exclusive—but you better call ahead.

Just one measure of its success; it’s tours are booked solid.

Hung Truong: “Make sure you call ahead because the tour’s so popular. I think I reserved like four weeks or something in advance? That’s really early.”

Hung Truong came to Theo Chocolate to see where the candy he buys is born.

Hung Truong: “Oh wow the fig one is good.”

Kate Kraay, leads this tour of about 20 visitors. Buzzing about each step of the chocolate bar’s creation.

Kate Kraay: “It’s this process of slurping up the chocolate from the bottom, spraying it up and around the sides; this is the closest thing that we have to Willy Wonka’s waterfall of chocolate.”

How did a company just four years old navigate through the recession? Vice President of Sales and Marketing Deb Music says one factor is the price.

Theo bars run about $3 a piece. That’s proven to be not too high and not too low. Another ingredient to success is that Theo bills itself as the first organic, fair trade chocolate factory in the US. That plays especially well in the northwest.

Music says founder Joe Whinney’s decision to relocate to Seattle from the east coast has been a golden ticket.

Deb Music: “I think our values at this point are very progressive and in line with a lot of people’s values here and I think the company is inspiring because we’re really trying to effect positive change in the world.”

Music says overall the company grew by 21 percent last year, despite the rough economy. And for the first part of this year Music says Theo has seen significant growth – around 25 percent – over 2009.

Curtis Vreeland is a confection industry analyst from Pennsylvania. He says while the chocolate industry isn’t recession proof, it is recession resistant.

Curtis Vreeland: “The overall premium chocolate market is struggling, but they’re layers in there which are doing well. And those would be where Theo is and those companies that are sort of in the gourmet section, but not the high-end.”

Another sweet spot for Theo is its identity.

Curtis Vreeland: “Once you’ve bought into the ethics of those kind of bars – organic and fair trade – you’re not going to shed your ethos in a recession. You may buy less. I think when the country comes out of the recession they’ll be buying quite a bit more.”

Back at the tour at Theo Chocolate, Hung Truong says it’s worth the price.

Hung Truong: “There’s like a psychology thing there, where you might not be able to afford the best things all the time, but you can afford something that’s really nice some times. And it’s just like what $3 for a bar? You’re treating yourself, and you’re not breaking the bank.”

By the end of the tour Truong is left with only one worry.

Hung Truong: “I think those little kids disappeared. It’s oddly like Charlie and the chocolate factory. Did one turn into a blueberry? What happened to them?”

I’m Chantal Anderson reporting.

I went to the bank yesterday to fix a $12 fee that shouldn’t have been there. I kept getting random offers and shit that I really didn’t want to hear. Like the teller kept trying to show me how to do bill payment through Chase Bank and my credit cards (also through Chase).

Apparently the reason for the $12 service fee was that my accounts weren’t properly linked. The teller asked her manager if the fee could be reversed and then told me that he could reverse the fee if I agreed to be shown how to do the online bill payment (I had to log in on their computer). I probably should have just threatened to close my accounts, but I didn’t want to waste more time.

Needless to say, the experience wasn’t a good one. I’m closer to closing my Chase accounts than ever before. I’ll probably find a new bank before I do so, though. I really hate how pushy Chase is to try and get me to open more accounts, use their stupid bill pay and use their debit cards (which I never do). The worst thing is that all of these “offers” increase the line wait time and just wastes their customers’ time. Definitely not the way to do customer service.

Anybody know of a good bank that has branches and ATMs in Southeast Michigan?

Anyway, some guy just started chatting with me on it. He was also named Hung Truong. Here’s the strangeness that ensued:

webuser5.1128: yo

me: hi

webuser5.1128: sup man

me: not much bro

webuser5.1128: where u from?

me: uh, you’re on my portfolio

webuser5.1128: my name is hung truong

me: what
me too

webuser5.1128: like seriously though
i search my name in google
and this website came out

me: yeah, cool
do you have a website?

webuser5.1128: nope, but nice webste man

me: thanks
there’s also some hung truongs in the news

webuser5.1128: wow

me: like one who killed a police officer or something
that’s not me
that’s not you either, right?

webuser5.1128: hahaha
nooooo!!

me: ok good

webuser5.1128: lol

me: just checking to make sure

webuser5.1128: i was born in vietnam
are you by any chance vietnamese
?

me: my name’s vietnamese but i’m actually chinese
my parents lived in vietnam
but i was born in the US

webuser5.1128: cool
i g2g man nice talking to u dawg

me: yeah you too
bye

webuser5.1128: peace out

[System] (visitor closed chat)