More about Daniel
Topics beyond the campaign
My background
I'm an immigrant, originally from Malaysia, and now a naturalized US citizen who has lived in the States for about 20 years. I first came to this country in 1998 to do my Bachelor's in Computer Science at Michigan Tech, with dreams of being a programmer. Life had other plans for me, though. After graduation I returned to Malaysia in 2001, and ended up pursuing a journalism career instead at a national newspaper called The Star, where I first worked as a writer then as a news copy and layout editor for many years. In yet another twist, in 2009 I went back to school in the US, where I earned a Master's in Psychology at New Mexico State University. I have always been interested in technology and computers, so I applied my education towards the tech industry in the field of user experience research (at the time more popularly known as "human factors" or "usability"). Since then I've worked at several different companies around the country before moving to the Bay Area in 2018, and to Dublin in 2021, where my family and I now reside.
I'm an optimist at heart and often have a pretty casual, open, and down-to-earth outlook. I like to focus on the big picture and think life is too short to be missing the really important things.
Why I get involved
Have you heard of that saying "Be the change you want to see in the world"? That's something I often think about, and something that motivates me to participate, whether it's volunteering in my community, or helping others, or running for office. Ever since my youth, I've been interested in news and current events, from things that happen in my local community to major events at the national and world stage. I see things that I wish were different about our world and, to be honest, I wish someone else would go and fix everything so that I can live my life without worrying for the future. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that watching passively from the sidelines and "waiting for someone else" isn't going to change anything. Maybe it's up to me, you, and all of us to be that "someone" to bring that change we want for our world. That's why I get involved.
Visit us for Halloween!
If you celebrate Halloween or have kids who do trick-or-treating, come visit our home in the Boulevard neighborhood, near the rec center! We have been doing a "cat-themed house" for the past few years, and it's always fun and heart-warming for us to see people enjoying it. (There are other parts of the neighborhood that go all-out too, so do pay them a visit as well!)
At the end of the day, whatever the outcome of this election, we're still neighbors living together in this city we call home.
