Tony Law's Website

First Week of 2026

Jan 12, 2026

Trump’s administration surprised the world with the capture of Venezuela’s dictator last weekend. I had been pouring a lot of time watching news trying to grasp the implications for Canada, HK, and the entire world’s geopolitical environment. I feel worried and couldn’t quite know how to react.

The stock market reacted positively and the TSX index continued to break new record highs. My portfolio did exceptionally well because I didn’t hold any petroleum related stocks which took a little dip after the weekend Venezuela raid. The optimistic stock market outlook without much positive news to back it up made me worried even more. I really don’t understand how the economy works and really should spend less time messing with my investments.

Bought 2 cases (6 blind boxes each) of a new Lego minifig series that I really liked. Was worried that there would be repeats in the blind boxes and that I would have to waste extra money trying to collect all 12 figures. To my surprise, there wasn’t a single duplicate in the 12 blind boxes! That brought me a little delightful moment amidst the tumultuous times.

Started playing pick up bball again on Saturday with my friends. Felt good to start exercising once again. Felt just a little sore in the muscles waking up this morning, and that’s nothing to worry about because I have the entire week to recover.

New Year 2026

Jan 4, 2026

Returned to Canada for just over a week, I’m slowly adapting to the slower and quieter life here once again. Started meeting and catching up with some friends here. Seems like not a lot have happened in Canada while I was away for a month.

My friend gifted me an air fryer and taught me how to bake yam that taste extra sweet. I finished a whole bag in one week and bought another bag yesterday. I also tried air frying some chicken wings, they tasted pretty good with sriracha sauce. Really loving the convenience of the air fryer. I’ll likely be experimenting and cooking much more at home this year.

I’m starting to cut back on my time on trading stocks. Even though my investment earnings for the past 5 months was more than enough to cover my expenses, I feel a lack of meaning and purpose. This year I hope to restart the plan to setup a satellite design studio here in TO, may God continue to guide my steps ahead.

HK Trip Review

Dec 28, 2025

Returned to Canada early yesterday morning after a month-long trip to HK. I relied on my good old friend who dropped me off the airport a month ago to pick me up again in the cold early Saturday morning. Felt good to be back to my familiar quiet home and finding everything just the way they were when I left them a month ago. I had breakfast, took a shower, caught up on some news, and had a deep sleep from around noon to past 9pm!

The refreshing sleep kickstarted my process to recharge after depleting much of my energy from the month-long trip. The trip was exhausting mainly because of the unexpectedly frequent meetups with family and friends. There was only a handful of days I was given the opportunity to spend time alone and away from engaging in any social activities. The trip made me realize even more how much I needed my personal solitary times to be a happy living being.

Having said that, I did enjoy meeting and catching up with friends every now and then. Perhaps I can try staying in HK a little bit longer for my next trip and have the meetups more spread out across the days. And hopefully by then HK will be able to come out from the lingering gloomy atmosphere caused by the Tai Po fire tragedy. I continue to pray for God’s grace and mercy on this once glorious and free city where I was born and loved and now had to flee from to catch a breath of freedom and to see a glimpse of hope.

Back to Designing

Dec 22, 2025

Had meetups on Tue, Wed, Thur, and Sat this past week. Also had 3 family gatherings on top of that. I did enjoy seeing and catching up with friends, but the frequent meetups in the past few weeks had exhausted much of my energy.

After my lunch meetup with a friend on Tuesday, I visited a letterpress museum that’s not too far from my friend’s workplace. Bought one of the capsules with a 3D printed letterpress inside. The design and print quality of the letterpress was poor, not to mention the expensive price tag. I went back to the studio afterwards and immediately started designing and prototyping some better letterpress products.

It only took me a day or two of focused design time to come up with some satisfying prototypes. Now thinking I can leverage the hundred surnames calligraphy project I finished more than a year ago and turn them into letterpress stamps!

Didn’t expect to do any design work during this month-long trip in HK, but the spontaneous project sparked a sense of purpose. It was a spontaneous “see a need, fill a need” kinda meaningful work which I should dedicate more of my time to do in the future. Now with less than a week left in this city, I’m currently thinking of ways of bringing the project to fruition remotely after returning to Canada.

I feel more at ease spending time alone (working or not) than socializing with friends. Will be able to have a lot of quiet solitary time alone to recharge when I return to TO shortly. I just need to make sure I don’t totally deplete all my energy here in HK before the opportunity to recharge in Canada.

A Time to Meet & Mourn

Dec 14, 2025

It was a busy week of meetups. Had a total of 7 meetups with friends in 4 days. The only 2 days my schedule was open I had dinner with my parents. I had to rely on my digital scheduler to keep track of everything.

Being an introvert, the meetups with so many people in a week was quite emotionally draining. The Tai Po fire tragedy that killed 160+ people left a lingering gloomy vibe around the city and was one of the dominating topic in our meetup conversations. I soaked up quite a load of negativity from all the gatherings.

Now with less than 2 weeks left in this darkened city, I’ll probably continue to meet and mourn with more people in the city while continuing the cleanup of the studio. May God continue to bless my trip. 🙏🏻

A Time to Mourn

Nov 30, 2025

Arrived in Hong Kong for a month-long visit on Thursday night. I only started hearing about the tragic fire in Tai Po hours before my flight while I was packing my luggage in the middle of the night. Discussed about it with the friend who kindly drove me to the airport in the very early morning. He said he had relatives living in the residential buildings where the fire broke out. I think neither of us knew the seriousness of the fire back then.

After arriving at YVR and while waiting for my connecting flight to HK, I started seeing horrific photos of many buildings in flames in my IG feed. I texted my friend and found out his relatives were safe.

Upon arriving in HK, I quickly skimmed through my IG feed for the latest updates, the death toll had rose to 55 with over two hundred people still missing. My brother-in-law picked me up from the airport and we went directly to have dinner with my sister and parents. My dad said one of his friends who lived in the area was fortunately not at home when the deadly fire broke out.

In the days that followed, I continued to soak in all the sad news that I had missed during my travel. The latest death toll was 128 and counting. It is the deadliest fire in the history of HK. And today after Sunday service, I tagged along my sister and brother-in-law to visit the site to pay respect to the many lives that were lost. It was my first time to experience the collective mourning of the entire city. I pray that God would be merciful to the many souls that were lost and continue to comfort and help those who had lost their loved ones and their homes. 🙏🏻

First Anniversary

Nov 18, 2025

The past weekend marked the first anniversary of my return back to Canada. Thanks to the support of my family and friends, and the gracious providence of God, I feel now that I am fully settled back to this country for good.

The big items including shelter, transportation, and finances are now more or less settled and requiring little attention. And in terms of emotional attachment, the struggling completion of the recent marathon race and the heartbreaking loss of the Blue Jays in the World Series made me realize how much I’m in love with this city and country. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same anymore about the city and country I returned from.

It’s not all glory in Canada. There’s high crime rate, high unemployment rate, inefficiency and low productivity in general, homelessness, high reliance on our southern neighbor, etc., just to quickly name a few. But in midst of the many woes, the most important core values still stand, that includes freedom, democracy, justice and the rule of law. As long as these core values remain intact, I can see hope like a glimmer of light shining through a darkening world. I pray that my time spent residing in this country can bring about positive impact to the people and environment I was given the opportunity to serve in many years to come.

Investment Result

Nov 9, 2025

Yesterday marked the 3-month milestone since I made my first ever stock investment. Took a little time to evaluate my quarterly performance.

Overall, my rookie performance for the quarter was quite decent, making a growth of just above 6%. Compared to the market index of around 8% growth and my personal goal of 2.5% growth (ie. 10% annual growth), my performance should be considered more than satisfactory.

Looking at the market index, August and September saw a considerable sharp rise and October onwards turned a little chaotic and seemed to be heading slightly downwards. I took a quick look at the 5y graph and, from the standpoint of an amateur investor, it seems like we are now at an unreasonable high peak. Unreasonable because I had been hearing nothing but bad news economically (tariffs, unemployment, food bank reliance, homelessness, etc.) in the past quarter or so, what in the world could have sustained us to grow and reach this historic economic peak?!

I am starting to worry about a sharp market fall which I had never experienced before in my short 3 months career. I sold off and cashed in about 30% of my investment fund and will likely sit out a little bit to observe the market conditions before making any major investment moves.

Now should be a good time to finally shift my focus back to setting up a sustainable design studio here in Canada. May God continue to guide my steps forward. 🙏🏻

Traveling Jays Fan

Nov 2, 2025

Still not completely over the devastating loss of Blue Jays last night. The game was very exciting and we were soooooo close to winning it all in a few opportunities!

I only started watching the game for the past 10 games or so as my home team looked more and more like a worthy contender to winning the World Series. Without cable set up at home, I had to go out to catch the games in many consecutive evenings. I was invited to 3 different homes and visited 3 different bars, and was kicked out from one of them when the game continued past 14 innings past 1am. The Jays ended up losing the game at 18th inning.

The Blue Jays team really helped unite the city together. Strangers were talking and chanting over the game. People seemed especially happy and friendly after a win, and looked a bit gloomy after a loss. That’s the pulse of a city that’s alive and well. It felt good to be a part of the city and rooting for it genuinely together. This is a privilege not to be taken for granted because rooting for the wrong team or person from the perspective of the one in power can actually land you in jail in other cities. I’m grateful that I was given the opportunity to move back to Canada and can feel alive again.