WHERE DID YOU GROW UP? WHAT WAS YOUR PATH TO CAL? I was born in Beijing, then moved to Idaho, before settling down in Sunnyvale, CA. I'd describe my school experience as a pinball, where where I ended up bouncing past first grade, then hitting second grade twice in two different countries. For high school, I went to Fremont High in Sunnyvale, then Lynbrook High in San Jose, and finally spent senior year in De Anza College, a local community college. As for my path to cal, I applied thinking I'd be Poli Sci. From there, I pinballed over to english/shakespeare, and then MCB, before settling down into CES. HOW MUCH PROGRAMMING HAVE YOU DONE (& WHAT LANGUAGES)? I started off early in BASIC, liked it, and then later took classes in C++ and Java. I hated that so much that I decided to never touch programming again in my life, which worked out really well. Later, in High School, I re-learned Java, decided that I actually liked it enough to continue. Then here, I've learned Scheme and some Python. I'm a pretty big fan of Python, even though I'm still a complete newbie with it. WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES? This is kind of tough, I do all kinds of things. Lately, I've been really amusing myself with trying to figure out my schedule, which I magically mess up every semester by adding a bunch of random classes. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR TALENTS & SKILLS? HAVE YOU DONE ANYTHING REMARKABLE? HAS ANYTHING MEMORABLE HAPPENED TO YOU? This is a story of how I made fire. One day a few years ago, the power was out, but I decided I really wanted to take a shower. Being 2pm, the clever thing to do here was just keep the door open, and let the light shine in and the wise thing was to maybe just wait. I'm seldom clever, and never wise. I decided that I would simply light a candle in the bathroom. The only problem was, I had no match. "What's the big deal? I mean, primitive man could do it, I'm SURE I could do it too," I thought. If only I knew what was coming. I tried the obvious spin a stick outside on some grass, first. I'm sure its standard boy-scout procedure...but I gave up that one pretty fast after getting a splinter on the first twig I tried. Next, I remembered this cool Mythbusters episode where they focused sunlight with a magnifying glass to start fire. So, I pulled out a flashlight from the closet, and focused it on some napkins. No luck...Maybe I should try toilet paper-that seems pretty dry?...No luck. Maybe, I should try some oil on the paper, more energy or something. Nope...Oh, maybe motor oil? Nope. Oh I know, if I rip up this toilet paper, I'll have a lot of frayed edges and a lot of easily-flammable fibers, THAT'S GOTTA WOR...Nope. At this point, it had been clsoe to an hour, and I decided "Alright, time for the big guns." I searched for a battery, standard AA size and some wires. I connected up the wires to each end, and then connected them together on a piece of toilet paper. Waiting...waiting. SMOKE! Just a bit longer...just a bit...oh...crap. What is this...this battery is REALLY REALLY hot! My battery was going to EXPLODE in my hand! What do I do? Give up? Never. I taped an ice cube to the battery. I repeat same drill, and once again, I see smoke...and then...I get zapped. And then again. And again. So apparently, ice melts into water. And apparently, water conducts electricity. How could I have known? At this point, it's closer to the two hour mark...and I just left the door open as I showered. Then, I went to 7-11 which was about a 2 minute walk away and picked up a lighter. I got fire pretty soon after that. Much later, I told this story to my roommate. He asked me, "Why didn't you just use the flashlight in the bathroom?" WHAT COMMITMENTS WILL BE CONSUMING YOUR CYCLES THIS SEMESTER? The notable commitment I have is that I'm taking a Neural Computation class, VS298. In the second meeting, we spent the entire time analyzing neurons as an RC Circuit or a low-pass filter. Also, I'm seriously considering doing NaNo this year. It's a project where you write a 175 page / 50,000 word novel during the month of November.