Brian's 340 Blog

Growing up in Hong Kong has been a very eye-opening experience. On one hand, Hong Kong has exposed me to a diverse group of people and opportunities, but on the other hand, it has also shown me to an abundance of political, environmental, and social injustices from an early age. Nonetheless, my love for this city remained unwavered and my hope has always been to return to Hong Kong in the future to contribute to the local community in some way. Two of the most prominent issues, and ones that I am most familiar with, in Hong Kong today are air pollution and homelessness.  Let me speak about my experience with witnessing homelessness in Hong Kong first. During senior year of high school, I decided to sell all unwanted items of mine to free up some much-needed space. It wasn’t much, but I was able to make some cash from what I had to sell. At first, I was unsure what to do with the money and was thinking about donating it, but my aunt suggested I do some hands-on charity work with it....

I have recently been trying to find a new driver for my golf set. There are many good options on the market, but based on some preliminary research, the following were the only ones worth looking at: Callaway's Mavrik, Taylormade's SIM, and Ping's G series. Here's a breakdown of the new technologies in each driver. Mavrik: Callaway's new driver face is 6 grams lighter than the previous generation, decreasing the overall weight of the club (6 grams seems small, but is significant for a driver). They also redesigned the club head by flattening the crown to improve aerodynamics. Most importantly, however, they have incorporated two lightweight metal bars behind the club face in order to increase ball speed and distance.  SIM: Taylormade has introduced a "twist-face" in which the 3-D plane of the club face has been twisted in order to straighten shots no matter where the ball and club face make contact. Additionally, the SIM driver has a more aerodynamic sole ...

I'll start by saying this: All people are more alike than they think. Reading each story in American Like Me has revealed a common thread between all immigrant stories. That is, the authors all begin by feeling some form of admiration towards the US, but eventually become alienated and pushed to a corner because of some realization or experience during their upbringing. Ultimately however, most stories end with the author overcoming their challenges in assimilation and eventually accept themselves for who they are and find comfort in their roots. Indeed, every story has its own nuances due to their differences in cultural backgrounds. But despite each author's unique experiences, I began to see and appreciate all immigrant parents for their perseverance through hardships to provide for their families and also every child of immigrant resiliency and determination to remain rooted in their background and cultures.  The parts of the book which I felt were most relatable, unsurpris...

American Like Me Blog 1 After reading blog posts from classmates, I decided to read American Like Me, hoping to be able to relate and connect to the book like they had. Fortunately, I was able to find a one that really left an impression with me, and this story had strikingly similar descriptions to my own experiences growing up.  This was Jeremy Lin’s story. I was so excited to see that he was part of this book because he was my childhood hero. To me, Jeremy Lin was more than just a basketball player; he was evidence that Asians can also play in the NBA without having to be seven feet tall like Yao Ming. More importantly, he was a living example of someone succeeding despite being a minority in his profession and overcoming so much adversity along the way.  Unlike his parents, mine were not very supportive of my dreams of becoming a professional basketball player. In hindsight, I'm glad they stopped me because I would have gotten destroyed by my friends who continued growing ...

TO: Clark Hansen, CEO, AMDP FROM: Brian Tse, R&D, AMDP DATE: Sep 29, 2020   SUBJECT: Recommendation to Invest in First Solar, Inc. Today, too many corporations try to be social enterprises for the sake of meeting social expectations. In order to weed out these companies, I decided to search for specific industries that sell products and services with the intention of making a positive impact. This led me to discover the clean energy sector and settling on First Solar as the company of interest.  Through extensive research and a thorough examination of the company’s financials, sustainability report, and core values, I have concluded that First Solar meets AMDP’s strict investment criterion and encourage you buy First Solar stocks as a long-term investment. Allow me to remind you of AMDP’s investment criteria before proceeding with my analysis: Triple Bottom Line : A sustainability framework to evaluate a company from the following three perspectives. (Kraaijenbrink): 1. ...

Ergonomics For the past year or so, I've been extremely interested in the ergonomics of work furniture. I'm sure you've heard all the rage about standing desks, balance pads, ergonomic mouse and keyboards, etc. Like many others, I was always very skeptical about this stuff. I thought it was just another BS way for people to make money off of millennials looking for a gimmick. Having said this, I had also heard and read about the benefits of ergonomic furniture from legitimate sources. While I was genuinely curious about this subject, I never seemed to be able to convince myself to spend money to find out. I eventually decided to cave in to my curiosity when I started experiencing neck and back pains from sitting all day front of my laptop (and yes, I realize it's kind of sad for a twenty year old to be experiencing back and neck pains, but it is what it is). And so with that, I decided to buy a height adjustable table at  home to study on. This desk is electrically powe...