2018 – TJ Online

Road Trip Across the USA

December 7, 2018April 9, 2020 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 467 views.

I’ve accepted a new job in the Seattle area, and this means moving from the Triangle region of North Carolina all the way across America to the Pacific Northwest. I could have just flew and had everything shipped, but taking a road trip across the USA has always been in my bucket list, and this was the perfect opportunity. I ended up taking a 12 day road trip with family across the continent and saw a lot of interesting and beautiful places along the way.

Our trip route took me from Morrisville, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington through 12 states and around 3400 miles. I had to do all of the driving and therefore chose one of the shorter routes. It was still plenty of miles through the plains to the mountains, and thanks to the unpredictable November weather, we had to drive through rain, snow and high winds (not all at the same time). It was a tough drive at times, but we made it to our destination in one piece. Keep reading for the highlights of my road trip across the USA.

Tony's road trip across the USA map — Map of the route I drove to get from North Carolina to Washington (click to enlarge)

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Big Changes and Taking Chances

October 28, 2018October 28, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 135 views.

Looks like 2018 will end up as a year of big changes for me. I quit my job as power systems engineer that I worked for more than 4 years, and I am going to try my hand at a different industry. I am taking a chance with the move, but the potential upsides of the opportunity was too good for me to pass up. As for my old job, it was definitely a valuable experience and I learned a lot. Things didn’t always go smoothly, but it was my first full-time job and I’ll always remember the times I spent there. In this day and age, changing jobs every 4-5 years is pretty common, so it was about time for me to make my next move as well. I am currently in the processing of preparing for the long distance move, and I’ll be taking some time to travel before I start my new job. I am excited about what the future will bring. Wish me luck.

TonyJiang.com: Year 12!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 17, 2018September 17, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 108 views.

August has rolled around past us already, and that means TonyJiang.com is another year older. This website you are reading right now has been online for a dozen years :!: :!: :!: Isn’t that amazing :?: Ok, maybe not that amazing, but 12 years is not too shabby.

Just like the last few years, I don’t have much to update on the website, since I didn’t work on it very much. I’ve been busy with work and other things. Hopefully I’ll find some time at least to paint the backgrounds for this blog. As with the last few years, the traffic and ad revenue are still on the downward trend. If I learned anything from my anime/manga blogging days, it’s that you have to keep creating relevant content to get readership, and I certainly haven’t been doing that. My little travel and gadget blog posts are mostly for my own amusement, after all. Still, thanks to everyone who visited during the past year, and onwards to another year of TJ Online.

Summer Travels

September 17, 2018September 17, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 165 views.

It’s the middle of September already. Although it still quite warm where I live, summer is pretty much over, and it’s time again to recap the fun and adventure that I’ve had in the past three months or so.

New Drone: Tenergy TDR Sky Beetle

September 10, 2018September 10, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 373 views.

Drones have become more and more common over the last 5 years, and I finally got into the game. The drone I got is the Tenergy TDR Sky Beetle. As with a number of my gadgets, I won the Sky Beetle from an online sweepstakes. With a retail price of about $45, the Sky Beetle is a neat little drone that has some tricks up its sleeve. Read on to find out my first impressions of the Sky Beetle.

tenergy sky beetle box — Got a new toy to play with :)

Pre-Commercial Demonstration of a Direct Non-Iterative State Estimator

August 25, 2018August 25, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 166 views.

The conference paper that I presented at the 2018 IEEE PES T&D Expo in Denver has been published online, and I’m happy to share it here. This paper is related to the non-iterative state estimation method that I’ve worked on during my grad school and at my current job, so I did put a lot of time and effort for the method to get to this point. As usual, this paper is probably only interesting to those in the electric power industry, in particular to those who are interested in synchrophasor applications. Read below for the abstract and link to the full paper.

Real-time Voltage Instability Indicator (RVII): Enhancements and Case Studies

July 17, 2018July 17, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 143 views.

For the first time in almost 3 years, I have a new technical paper to share on this blog. The paper was written for a conference, and it talks about a measurement-based voltage instability detection method that I worked on as part of my job. It might be an interesting read for those in the electric power industry, especially those who deal with real-time operation and monitoring. This is the first paper that I (co)authored as part of my current job and my professional career, and I’m glad it finally got published. Read below for the abstract and link to the full paper.

Fun in the Spring

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 169 views.

It’s been about 3 months since I last posted here, and so it’s time again to recap some of the fun and adventures that I had over the last season. The only major trip I had was going to Denver, Colorado to attend a conference, and I managed to get in some late season skiing in the Rocky Mountains. Keep reading to see the photo (and video!) highlights.

Fall and Winter Activity Recap

March 24, 2018June 6, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 227 views.

Here is the long overdue post of my travels and adventures over the last few months. I usually do one per season, but I’ve been slow on the blogging so this post will be for the last half a year, covering both fall and winter. The most notable activity was my trip to southern China, which I already wrote about, but I also went on other smaller trips and adventures over the last half-year. So keep reading if you want to see what I’ve been up to and what troubles I’ve gotten myself into :wink: .

Probably the best fall foliage we saw during the trip was along this stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway

Trip to Southern China

March 18, 2018March 23, 2018 TJ Leave a comment
This post has 484 views.

During the last winter holiday season, my family and I visited China for the first time since 2010. We went back mainly for a family reunion, but we visited a few places as well. It was a good trip in terms of seeing relatives and visiting new places, but I had a cold through most of the trip so I didn’t feel 100%. I still a lot of fun though, and this post contains the highlights of the trip.

Guangzhou Tianhe — The view of the Tianhe area at night, towards the south to Guangzhou Tower.

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