(edit: 1/19/2007) – I’ve been using the same "About Me" page for over a decade now. It’s probably been obsolete for more than half of that time now, and my objective now is to write something timeless.
Background
I met Illie in college. She was the very first, and the only girlfriend I’ve ever had. After dating for four years, we got married on June 10th, 2004.
Academic
During my senior year of high school, I took advanced math at Long Beach State.
After high school, I chose Williams College for undergrad, majoring in Computer Science. Afterwards, I finished a Masters in Computer Science at Brown University, and did my thesis work in streaming databases.
Interests
Languages
My first language was Taiwanese, and I didn’t get out of ESL until second grade. I learned Spanish from ages 13 to 17, and I took two years of Chinese Mandarin in college. I’m conversationally competent in Taiwanese and Mandarin, and would love to achieve more fluency in Spanish. I can probably understand about 50% of an average newspaper article written in Chinese, depending on the subject. To my regret, I’ve stopped studying Chinese after graduate school, and my Spanish has greatly deteriorated.
Athletics
Since high school, I became interested in endurance sports. While I don’t excel by any means, at least my height and stature is not a competitive disadvantage in running and cycling as in other sports.
After cycling from Rossmoor to San Diego with a friend in 1996, I became very interested in cycling. During college breaks, I’d cycle about 50 miles a day several times a week, from Rossmoor to Irvine (and back).
Later on, I became interested in running. Marathons have included the 2004 LA Marathon, 2006 Chicago Marathon, 2008 LA Marathon, and 2009 St George Marathon. My best marathon time was 3:13, at St George 2009, and my best half marathon time was a 1:32:06 at Carlsbad 2009.
Artistic
I’ve won a couple art shows at my age group, I’ve done work for the Mayor of Los Alamitos. I’ve also sold one drawing. Though, I don’t really keep it up. My plan is to restart this hobby when I retire.
A gallery of my work, mostly from around 2003-2004.
Diet
Programming
Starting in 1992, I ran bulletin board system, running at 2400 baud. By the time I closed it after graduating from high school, it was a two-line, networked system running on a multi-tasking software on top of DOS, with over 1000 users. Some of the first programming I ever did was modding the software in C.
Since college internships at Microsoft and GTE Research Labs, I’ve focused on server-side and client-side web-development. I’ve been in software development ever since.
Useless, Quirky Stuff
Pencil-twirling – probably about three or four tricks. I can twirl with both hands.
Memorizing PI – peaked at about 500 digits in high school, but right now 200 reside in long-term memory.
Memorizing morse code – in preparation for the end of the world.
MUDding – heroed in Copper, nearly heroed in Sojourn, and then heroed in Lunar Eclipse.