Updates (Mar 8, 2026)
I will talk about the time in Vietnam from 2015 – 2016.
Was there anything? Does work, grit and maturity mean anything? Yes, but …
Back then and now?
To be honest back in 2015, I was not tired yet.
I was not looking for a wife yet. But thank you for the experiences and connections …
I never did computer programming or learned more than normal living in Canada. I just worked slave labour previously.
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Then after the episodes of life from 2017 – 2026, I realized I stepped out of bounds and work locationally that leveraged region, frequency and climate.
If I was going to do computer programming the way I want, I had to do it in California or Seattle.
If I was going to do gaming, I had to do it at a major game studio like in Montreal.
I forgot that while dying out here in Oshawa.
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Back in 2020, my family in Oshawa was dying out. None of the kids had children of their own. We were at a lost because the children were taught to be passive. At the very start, born and growing up in Canada we are seen secondary and have to balance with the majority and work hard. Even our family business and the older sister works passive jobs in this country alongside the majority …
I tried nursing and tried teaching. I failed at both because the culture that I know (My Vietnamese culture in my head frontal lobe was fractured for thousands of years). There was no advanced culture or technology that I could spend hours talking about to a student or patient. I did not fulfill my hobbies growing up as a 2nd generation Vietnamese born in Canada …
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So I went back to computers and now we got something.
I mainly went back to computers in 2020 because of 2 reasons.
- I met Vietnamese from Vietnam who excelled beyond normal everyday universal standards. I was weakened to the core … I was amazed at Northern Vietnamese mindsets and minds from abroad.
- I did not want to die knowing I could have done my dreams. I did not have to listen to my parents and become a health professional as I had some experiences doing that before. I knew I could play on the computer all day drinking the cheapest instant coffee (drink tap water with some instant coffee powder) and dollar store cookies or reduced 30 – 50% off pastries at the local grocery store.
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So by being a broken war refugee child, I grew and grew to tackle a niche area that was dormant because that is what I liked to do as a child: System Utilities, Fixers, Debloaters and Customizers.
Simply put … People want efficiency and power even it it takes them 3 – 5 hours to customize at the software level. They will do it again and again and again to gain the 0.1% of extra performance daily, weekly and monthly. It is the North American mind of modding to the extremes.
That area has some players but things are questionable because the major players are big companies since the last 10 – 20+ years and you had to pay sometimes.
So things worked out at the end by being niche and addressing my trauma … at the end it is all trauma addressing.
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Now what?
Changing location killed me.
To do advanced software designs you must live in California / Seattle where everyone goes. To the USA!!!
To do advanced game development you must live in Montreal or places where the best games are developed so there is no problems with people or culturally. You are in it to make the best games in the world!!!
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My father said to stop doing software as he happy living his way and the family way pre-2020 here in Oshawa.
Let’s see how things go.
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Life and living is now regional.
Now I have less stress and can vent on what occurred.
I am blogging the stories to expel the changes that occurred over the last 6 – 7 years.
I can not continue the things I did before.
All I can do is talk about the past and say how things will go normally in everyday from now on in classical physics living.
Going farther goes out of bounds in terms of everything as we are embarking on custom new software that is tedious to make.
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So now I vent.
At least I went to this far end and stopped.
Life is now complete.
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So now I vent.
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We get an “Opportunity to ‘vent’ now.”
How lucky are we?
By doing education for 37 years, we found a way to capitalize on niche specialized areas of design, use and play in the modern world.
All it took was studying more than your specialist doctor.
School means absolutely nothing.
Institutions means nothing.
Elon Musk said it first.
Do what you like in the real world.
There are books teaching you the way without the institutional gatekeepers to life in the world.
Jesus, you can build spaceships studying alone probably at your city library.
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99.9999% of your time when you are 35+ years old does not depend on some Dean or college professor telling you what you can or can not do.
If you worked 10 years out in the real world and had like 5 – 7 jobs working in a multicultural real world environment spanning regions that will outpace most college professors.
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In my life, I was told a bunch of lies and blocked from getting education in institutions.
But ‘What the Heck!?’, I am full South Vietnamese born in Canada from An Giang province. If you don’t educate me I will fully eject back to Vietnam and the ‘ENTIRE IMMIGRATION SYSTEM WILL FAIL!’ as you failed the Vietnamese people. Things will collapse!
The secret is just to address your trauma and do your hobbies like the other Asians in North America in the 1950s – 1970s. Not after 1970’s though …
Connect with people worldwide to avoid regional and locational blockades.
By the 1970’s, the other Asians went back to their homeland to develop the semiconductor industry.
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The trick to learning semiconductors and circuit design is simply study computers programming I think.
Depending on you, the more computer programming you have, it is easier to play logic problems once you go develop some personal software that is on an out of this world tangent from your soul. It makes everything that is logic based become easy.
The more programming you do … I started programming in 2014 and now find it OK in 2026, everything becomes easier.
So start now. It is just logic based and doing your personal trauma problems.
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The messed up thing of life is that I thought computers and engineering were for only East Asians and South Asians since I was in grade 10 from TV, classmates and teachers.
When I was growing up teachers and other student made me think that this type of math was not for Southeast Asians. A lot of control and bullying in North America to keep people segregated and below …
All it took was socializing online with people from Mexico, Britain and Russia to dispel the North American stereotypes about Southeast Asians. There is a world out there beyond the Greater Toronto Area.
All it took was learning from some balanced broad users on StackOverflow.com to just read documentation and examples and try and try for the next 3 – 5 hours or the next 3 – 5 weeks … or years.
Hell, North America is no easy game. So much racism and blockage from other people that only time you can dispel them.
All it takes is 2-years computer programming diploma, 10 years of work and hobby experience, 2 – 5 years of enjoyment toying around. That is 5 more years than an average computer student to dispel all the stereotypes.
Just play it out and suddenly you are in your own road. What else are you going to do in a First World country?
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That is why I also don’t talk to immigrant women from Vietnam really. All the problems that I have growing up gets dismissed.
When you are growing up in grade school in North America it is life or death. You got to be ‘literally stupid’ or you won’t get a pass from some groups while studying in schools.
I was stunted growing up in Canada and immigrant women ask me why I don’t have $2.5 million USD in the bank driving the latest big SUV with blinding LEDs. They ask when is the next 5-star dinner? The 5-star dinner yesterday was not enough. They ask we should go daily as you are a Canadian. They ask why not take a plane to Vancouver today to see the latest fusion Asian restaurants.
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The problem with schools and institutions …
The children of the Dean or Doctor become gatekeepers in school and institutions later in life … Their parents got them there to choose people like them???
Does that mean quality???
If it isn’t quality then why even go to school and even go those institutions?
I then ask you, what kind of burger do you want?
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There are 2 things to keep in mind for positive growth and feeling good as a computer person I think.
- Create your own OS from scratch.
- Create your own WordPress platform.
Having those two goals that takes decades will make you positive in the long run … probably until you are long gone.
So is that life? Having goals like that that surpass you in lived years here in North America?
Make a Linux distro with a theme that matches you?
Make a few WordPress themes that match you?
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The duality of life as a 2nd generation Vietnamese born in Canada.
I am full South Vietnamese born in Canada from An Giang which is agriculture based.
People fight to get land from An Giang.
It is not just some tropical paradise where people drink iced coffee all day.
Money, food and stability is there once you own some land.
Other countries fight Vietnam to harvest it realistically.
That is all it is …
If you live in Vietnam for 6 months in one block period you realize people want Western education and are entrepreneurial to make a $1 billion USD.
That is all Vietnamese in Vietnam are fighting for.
To somehow make enough money to see their grandchildren grow up and be independent in the long run.
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That is why I want my brother to come back to Vietnam to live for a 6 months period with me and teach English.
He will then see the spirit of Vietnamese youth trying to make it to the West to do their dreams and more and never be fat or sick again.
The technology and infrastructure of the West is first. Once my brother sees how Vietnamese students yearn for First World services and supports, then my brother will not waste any minute of his life thinking negative again.
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