To Riley, you have made Mama and Dada's lives so much more beautiful, so much more meaningful. We are so very thankful and blessed that you came into our lives. We cannot imagine life without you.
More than anything, we want you to be happy. We want you to follow your dreams and be all that you want to be. We want your journey to be beautiful, meaningful, and full of happiness. Mama and Dada will always be by your side, supporting you, loving you, and giving you the best that we can.
We love you forever. You will always be our baby, and we will always be Mama and Dada.
Let me borrow some of the lyrics of your favorite lullaby, for these words reflect what Mama and Dada feel every time we see you, hold you, think of you:
And at last I see the light
And it's like the fog has lifted
And at last I see the light
And it's like the sky is new
And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once everything looks different
Now that I see you
To Eric, you are my ray of sunshine. I am so blessed to go through this journey with you. Now we have a little one to share our crazy adventures with, and I am looking forward to each one of them. I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times… In life after life, in age after age, forever.—Rabindranath Tagore
To Papa and Mama, I am forever grateful for everything that you've done and everything that you've sacrificed to give us a better life. I love you both very, very much. To JR and RR, no matter what happens, you will always be my baby brothers, and I will always be your big sis, and I will always be here for you.
To my nieces and nephews—Chiyo, Jayden, Kristina, Tim, and Evan—now that the book is done, Tita/Agim has more time to play! Let's go!
To my in-laws, I am very thankful to be part of your families.
To my BCIT family—Kevin Cudihee, Elsie Au, Joanne Atha, Vaani Nadhan, Cynthia van Ginkel, Charlie Blattler, Bob Langelaan, Paul Mills—thank you. My special thanks to Kevin Cudihee. Thank you for giving me that first chance to teach at BCIT. More than a decade later, I still love every minute that I teach. And to Elsie Au, for the friendship all these years.
To my UBC family—I am fortunate to work in a great place with great, smart, fun, passionate people who I deeply admire and learn from. To my teammates, co-workers, acquaintances, and friends, especially Joe Xing, Min Zhu, Jason Metcalfe, Tom Yerex, Jing Zhu, George Firican, Shirley Tsui, Lynda Campbell, Cindy Lee, Pat Carew, Stan Tian (our Tableau Server superhero at UBC!), Ana Maria Hobrough, and to my truly wonderful director and mentor, Pradeep Nair: it is a privilege to work with all of you.
To the Packt team, to Vinay Argekar for that e-mail asking if I was interested in authoring a Tableau book, and to Siddhesh Salvi and Manthan Raja, for really supporting me throughout the writing process, thank you. A huge thank you to Sneha Vijay as well for reviewing the book and providing a lot of feedback and nuggets of wisdom. Thank you for helping me make this book better.
To the Tableau family, it is so amazing to be part of your community. So many smart and very passionate professionals—so many data geeks!—how could I not feel at home? Thank you to Dan Murray, who was my instructor when I took my first Tableau course and who encouraged me to attend my very first Tableau conference. You've truly helped change the direction of my career. To Jonathan Drummey and Joe Mako—whom I met at that first TC conference (and who probably don't remember me), who have been so gracious and helpful—I didn't even realize they were THE rockstars! To George Gorczynski—Tableau Picasso—whom I have had the privilege of meeting in Vancouver—I owe you for helping me with my course. To Ramon Martinez, whose visualizations set the bar for healthcare (which I showcase a lot, especially for healthcare training). Special thanks to Molly Monsey for giving me the opportunity to teach the Tableau courses for Tableau (I love teaching Tableau!), and to Meagan Corbett for your constant and very timely help on the TFT (Tableau for Teaching) side—my students appreciate your help a lot!
I have learned so much from so many, and this space simply isn't enough. Thank you to everyone who has helped me, taught me, and inspired me.
And most importantly, thank you Lord for all the miracles and blessings in my life.
