Venom

🇹🇼 at a very Taiwanese point in my life

Who are you?

I’m not really sure myself, but part of the reason I am making this website is to discover that, and take you with me along the way.

Work?

I currently work for a semiconductor tooling company that sells wafer fabrication machines to chipmakers. My official title is Production Test Technician, but I do more than just testing these tools. I used to just be in assembly, but now I actually get to turn the thing on! There are also a few volunteer things I do in parallel related to software setup, configuration, and sometimes troubleshooting for these machines, safety/emergency response teams, and standby international field service work (of which I am currently on as of writing).

Eventually, I’m hoping to work my way up to some kind of engineering (embedded systems, CS, EE, or ME) or mechatronics position at this company, but I’m a long way from that.

Hobbies?

Computers

Anything that is remotely related to computers, I have likely either experimented with or is on my mind. I’m involved in A LOT of various engineering and making related spaces:

I do also have a lot of personal projects happening in parallel (some more developed than others…), but those are mostly just ideas of things I’d like to make/tinker with once I have more free time.

Some of my more recent experimental/research-phase subjects are as follows:

  • DIY PCB etching/milling
  • Digital hardware design with TinyTapeout (new design soon)
  • BEAM robots
  • Freeform electronics

Having this broad interest in engineering is both a gift and a curse; while it’s useful to know how every part of something works together and understanding why it’s important, my knowledge is very, very general and often struggle with how to apply it to new things without defaulting to a “best known method” (something I want to work on). However I will say, I am MUCH happier to be a generalist rather than a specialist because there’s always something new to do/learn and offers a lot more variety in work to be done (plus people think you’re extra smart if you can explain multiple conceptually-different things coherently).

Gaming

I used to play games much more often when I was in school, not so much nowadays unfortunately; but every once in a while, I’ll get a ping from some friends or teammates to play CS:GO, Minecraft, some “friend-slop” games, or sometimes even make games (in game jams hosted by PIGSquad). Occasionally, I’ll also play a game on my own like Minecraft, Balatro, Wizard of Legend, etc.

Content Creation

I also used to make videos and stream when I was in school. Never really consistent with it, but it was an aspiration that I still hold since I really want to build a community that does events or competitions or something. Although if I do get back into it, I’ll be using different tools (FOSS/native Linux support) and try to put together a loose schedule for it. Not sure what content I want to make or what style to make it in, but that’ll come with time and uploads.

Music

I LOVE MUSIC. I don’t know what it is or why, but music easily puts me in a happy place. It mostly doesn’t matter what I’m listening to (I do have preferences), but the thing I really enjoy about music is the performative side of it. I will sometimes watch orchestra or bands play on YouTube or rarely live (though I do want to go to more live shows). Something about watching people work in a large group to make this grand and intricate show right in front of your eyes is magical; seeing different content creators and bands playing music from game OSTs or films are what really inspired me to learn the piano.

I was learning and playing the piano pretty actively for about 2-3 years when I was in and a little after high school, but “learning” was a bit of an overstatement. Never learned scales, music theory, or how to read sheet music. I would learn to play short sections of songs by ear or full songs through MIDI tutorials. Disappointing I know, but I got much further doing it that way than guitar or the ocarina.

That being said, I do still occasionally make music using this DAW called FamiStudio. It’s effectively famitracker with a modern UI and can make songs that are in style and compatible with old 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. Can’t really make anything outside of chiptunes with it which was fine, but I love orchestral/big band pieces too (also big EDM/DnB and breakcore/jungle listener). That’s where I wanted to learn Ableton (same DAW my older brother bought) to be able to “make all the music”.

Maybe one day when I have a cleaner setup in my room that would actually allow me to sit at and play my piano again… Until then, I will be trying to use KiraStudio, which is the successor to FamiStudio and is a MASSIVE step up from FamiStudio. Quite excited to get into it and hopefully can make better, more interesting music along the way (maybe even make a game soundtrack).

Cooking

I was never really the cook in my house growing up; it’d basically either be my mum making food all the time or eating out. I did take a foods class, but I never really properly learned how to cook things from scratch (which is my end goal). Overtime since I moved into my own place, I’ve been hosting events at home and make most of the meals for them which has improved my comfortability around the kitchen. This has also gotten me to learn how to plan meals for certain amounts of people, taking into account things I would’ve never thought of like making more of something than what will be eaten now for use later or keeping things warm while other things cook in parallel.

I’ve been planning these meals in a digital notepad (Supernote Nomad) which has been very useful for writing down orders/preferences from guests, referring back to old recipes/grocery items, or just fully recreating a previous dish.

Teaching/Robotics

I don’t know why, but teaching is fun for me. Especially working with the robotics kids, it’s cool to see so many interested and capable students learn something new and do really amazing things along the way. Some even impress me beyond their time in robotics. I’ve said once before that sometimes it’s more interesting to see what they do outside of robotics, and when any of them invite me to something or want to show something off, I try to make time to indulge in their external endeavours.