Reading Time: 2 minutes I joined Twitter back in March 2008, and it’s been 14 years since I joined it. I don’t remember the exact reason I joined it, but I think one reason is probably in the early days of iOS (iPhone) app development, many developers are on Twitter as well. In recent years, the platform has expanded

Reading Time: < 1 minute The three legacy social networks 🙂 I have been using the 3 for a while, since 2008 to be precise. I started using LinkedIn after I switched job in Nov 2008 (amid financial crisis), because I realized I want to look for a developer job quickly after I jumped ship. I cannot remember the reasons

Reading Time: 2 minutes Seven years ago, when my 12 year old was 5, and we sent her to a summer camp. One day she came back in the afternoon with wet clothes, and we were upset and I sent angry email to the camp lead counselor (adult who is in charge). At the beginning of last school year

Reading Time: 4 minutes No I don’t drive the Rivian but I drive the Toyota Sienna next to it: owned it for 9 years now (since summer 2013). It was the main car (minivan) I drove in last 9 years, with the exception of sometimes I drove my wife’s Camry for the purpose of saving gasoline, or taking care

Reading Time: 6 minutes Our old daughter Serenity is entering 7th grade this school year, as I said somewhere else, in 6 years she will very likely attend college. Use her word, “I want to a quality college such as Columbia U”. I know she wanted to be a wildlife biologist and last I checked she has no intention

Reading Time: 2 minutes (Update 09-01-2023) I looked around and it seems another app was not not working (it seems the app is called My Ride 360, I never used it btw). It seems “Here Comes the Bus” is more widely used and thinking maybe worth to explore more with them (Android app, iOS app). (This was written last

Reading Time: 4 minutes (Update 11-16-2023) I created a MFS FAQ blog post today: I used some of the content below, plus some of the common questions being asked in last year or so. In the future, I will try to maintain/update that one. (Update 11-02-2023) A few parents asked about the “1st test” PDF file. It’s the first

Reading Time: 4 minutes Any questions please let me know || Mobile: 314 540 2721 || Email: minjie.xu@gmail.com (Update 11-18-2022) We ended the daylight saving time for the year. The sunset is usually at about 5 pm, thus 4:30 pm starting time will give about 30 minutes time. More importantly, the weather is becoming a bit cold as the

Reading Time: 4 minutes A.k.a., the enrichment opportunities, as they usually call it in the elementary schools. For middle school, though, they usually have more choices than elementary school. This is the Ladue Middle School current offerings. Note the Science Olympiad itself has 20+ subjects / events, and it’s mind boggling to say the least. Also note I was

Reading Time: 2 minutes Community night, open house, curriculum night,… the bottomline is, they are all “meet the teachers” night. It’s not as hard as “meet the parents” (I recall there was a movie with that name). Because of pandemic, last few years, meet the teachers have mostly virtual or drive through, to avoid large crowd etc. And I